Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A bibliotecária deu‑me duas dicas e encontrei o artigo que faltava. - The librarian gave me two tips and I found the missing article.

In European Portuguese, the unstressed pronoun usually comes after the verb in affirmative main clauses (enclisis): A bibliotecária deu‑me…. In Brazilian Portuguese, the default is before the verb (proclisis): A bibliotecária me deu…. So deu‑me sounds natural in Portugal; me deu sounds Brazilian.

What is the hyphen in deu‑me doing? Is it mandatory?

Yes. When a clitic pronoun (like me, te, o, lhe, nos) comes after the verb in Portuguese, it is attached with a hyphen: deu‑me, encontrei‑o, mostrou‑nos. Writing a space (deu me) is incorrect.

When would the pronoun go before the verb in Portugal?

Use proclisis (pronoun before the verb) after “attractors” such as:

Negatives: Não me deu.
Many adverbs: Já me deu, Ainda me deu.
Interrogatives/exclamatives: Quem me deu…?, Como me deu…?
Relative/subordinating words: O artigo que me faltava, Quando me deu as dicas…. In a neutral affirmative main clause, you revert to enclisis: Hoje deu‑me duas dicas.

Why is it duas dicas and not dois dicas?

Numbers agree in gender. Dica is feminine, so “two tips” is duas dicas (not dois).

What exactly does dica mean? Is dar dicas natural?

Dica means “tip/hint.” Dar uma dica/dar dicas is common and informal in Portugal. For a slightly more neutral tone, you might hear sugestão(es), indicação(ões), or pista(s) depending on context. Note: a money “tip” is gorjeta.

Why is there no eu before encontrei? Is that normal?

Yes. Portuguese is a pro‑drop language. The verb ending in encontrei already shows 1st‑person singular, so eu is optional unless you need emphasis or contrast: …e eu encontrei….

Is the second clause ambiguous about who found the article?

No. Encontrei is 1st‑person singular, so it unambiguously means “I found.” If you wanted to emphasize the subject switch, you could add eu: …e eu encontrei….

What tenses are used, and why does it switch to faltava?

deu and encontrei are in the Pretérito Perfeito (simple past): completed past events.
faltava is the Pretérito Imperfeito: it describes a background/state in the past (“was missing”) that held up to the point of discovery.

Could I say o artigo que faltou instead of que faltava?

Generally no, not for this meaning. Faltou suggests a punctual event (“it failed to show/it was missing at some point”). Here the idea is an ongoing state in the past, so que faltava (or que estava em falta) is the natural choice.

What does que stand for here? Could I use o qual?

Que is a relative pronoun meaning “that/which,” referring to o artigo. O qual/a qual/os quais/as quais is much more formal and less frequent in speech; you wouldn’t say o artigo o qual faltava here. Stick with que.

Why is it o artigo and not um artigo?

The definite article o signals a specific, identifiable article—the one that had been missing. Um artigo would mean “an article (one of many, not specific).”

How does faltar work? Who is the subject?

With faltar, the thing that is missing is the grammatical subject:

Falta uma página. = “A page is missing.”
Faltava o artigo. = “The article was missing.” If you want to express the person affected, you add an indirect object: Faltava‑me o artigo. = “I was missing the article.”

Could I use para mim with dar here?

In European Portuguese, the standard pattern is dar algo a alguém (dative with a), hence the clitic me: deu‑me duas dicas. Para mim usually means “for me” (intended/beneficiary), not “to me” (recipient). Deu duas dicas para mim sounds Brazilian and is not the default in Portugal.

Can I replace duas dicas with a pronoun?

Yes. With both indirect and direct object pronouns, EP fuses them: A bibliotecária deu‑me duas dicas → A bibliotecária deu‑mas (me + as = mas). Note it’s not deu‑me‑as in standard EP.

Is a comma before e needed?

No. Portuguese normally doesn’t use a comma before e in simple coordination: …deu‑me duas dicas e encontrei…. You’d add a comma only for special cases (parentheticals, heavy pauses, etc.).

Could I use achar instead of encontrar?

Sometimes, yes. Achar can mean “to find” (physically), but in Portugal encontrar is the neutral choice for locating something. Achar is also very common with the meaning “to think” (Acho que…), so encontrei avoids ambiguity.