Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

I will receive Pedro's email tomorrow.

Breakdown of Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

• eu: I
• Pedro: Pedro
• de: of
• amanhã: tomorrow
• receber: to receive
• o e‑mail: the email

Questions & Answers about Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

Why is recebo in the present tense if the action happens amanhã (tomorrow)?

Portuguese often uses the present tense to talk about the future when there is a clear time expression, like amanhã, logo, para a semana, etc.

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  = I’ll get Pedro’s email tomorrow.

This is similar to English sentences like “I get the results tomorrow” or “I leave tomorrow”.

You could also use:

• Eu vou receber o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã. (ir + infinitive, very common)
• Eu receberei o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã. (simple future, more formal / written)

All three are grammatically correct; the present is perfectly natural in everyday European Portuguese when you specify the time.

Is Eu receberei o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã wrong or strange?

It’s not wrong; it’s fully grammatical. However:

• Eu receberei o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  sounds more formal, more like written language (letters, official information, announcements).
• In everyday spoken European Portuguese, people more often say:
  • Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  • Eu vou receber o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

So receberei is correct but less common in normal conversation.

Is Eu vou receber o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã more natural than Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã?

Both are natural; the difference is subtle:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  – very normal, slightly more matter‑of‑fact, often used for scheduled events.

• Eu vou receber o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  – also very common, often used for near future or plans/expectations; feels a bit more “in motion”, like English “I’m going to get”.

In casual speech in Portugal, you’ll hear both forms all the time.

Do I need to say Eu, or can I just say Recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã?

You can drop Eu. The verb ending -o in recebo already tells you the subject is “I”.

• Recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã. – correct and natural.
• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã. – also correct.

Using Eu often adds:

• emphasis (contrasting with someone else):
  Eu recebo o e‑mail, tu não.
• or just clarity in a longer context.

In neutral contexts, both variants are fine; Portuguese regularly drops subject pronouns.

Why is it o e‑mail and not just e‑mail with no article?

Portuguese almost always uses an article with singular, countable nouns.

• o e‑mail = the email (a specific one that both speakers know about)
• Saying just e‑mail alone would usually sound incomplete in this sentence.

Compare:

• Recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  = I’ll get the (specific) email from Pedro tomorrow.
• Recebo e‑mails todos os dias.
  = I get emails every day. (here it’s plural and generic, so no article is fine)

So the article o is there for the same reason as “the” in English, but articles are used even more consistently in Portuguese than in English.

Can I say um e‑mail instead of o e‑mail?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  = I’ll get *the email from Pedro tomorrow*
  (a particular email that both of us know about).

• Eu recebo um e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  = I’ll get *an email from Pedro tomorrow*
  (one email, not specified which; it might be the first time you mention it).

So o = definite/specific, um = indefinite/unspecified, just like the vs a/an.

Why is it do Pedro and not de Pedro?

do is a contraction of de + o:

• de = of / from
• o = the (masculine singular article)
• de + o → do

In European Portuguese, people’s names usually take a definite article:

• o Pedro, a Maria

So literally you have:

• o e‑mail do Pedro = the email of the Pedro → Pedro’s email / the email from Pedro.

If you say de Pedro, you’re effectively omitting the article:

• o e‑mail de Pedro

This is not wrong, but in European Portuguese do Pedro is more natural in informal speech. You’ll see de Pedro more often in writing or in slightly more formal or “neutral” style.

Do people in Portugal always use an article with personal names, like o Pedro, a Maria?

In everyday European Portuguese, very often yes, especially in speech:

• O Pedro chega amanhã.
• Vou falar com a Maria.

But:

• In formal writing, articles before names are often dropped:
  Pedro chega amanhã.
• After certain titles, you usually don’t use the article:
  o senhor Pedro, a doutora Maria, but not normally o senhor o Pedro.

With de/do before a name:

• do Pedro – more typical in spoken EP
• de Pedro – a bit more formal / written, or just a different style choice

Both are understood everywhere.

What exactly does do mean here? Can you give other examples of this contraction?

do is de + o (of/from + the). It appears when de comes before a masculine singular noun that takes o.

Examples:

• o livro do Pedro = the book of the Pedro → Pedro’s book
• o carro do meu pai = my father’s car
• falo do problema = I talk about the problem
• gosto do filme = I like the film

Other similar contractions:

• de + a = da → da Maria, da casa
• de + os = dos → dos alunos
• de + as = das → das cidades

Can the word amanhã go in other positions in the sentence?

Yes, amanhã (tomorrow) is flexible in word order. All of these are possible:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã. (neutral, common)
• Amanhã recebo o e‑mail do Pedro. (very common; slight emphasis on “tomorrow”)
• Amanhã eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro. (also fine; extra emphasis on “I”)
• Eu amanhã recebo o e‑mail do Pedro. (possible, a bit more marked/emphatic)
• Eu recebo amanhã o e‑mail do Pedro. (fine, but sounds slightly more “careful” / structured)

Position mainly affects emphasis, not grammar or basic meaning.

Is e‑mail masculine or feminine in Portuguese?

In European Portuguese, e‑mail is generally masculine:

• o e‑mail, os e‑mails
• um e‑mail, uns e‑mails

So your sentence correctly uses o e‑mail.

You may also see:

• o email (without hyphen)
• or the more “Portuguese” term o correio eletrónico / o correio electrónico (EP spelling before the reform)

Is the hyphen in e‑mail necessary? I also see email in Portuguese.

Both e‑mail and email are used in Portugal.

• Traditional spelling: e‑mail (with hyphen)
• Very common modern spelling: email (no hyphen), influenced by English and current usage.

Dictionaries and style guides often accept both.
In your sentence, you can write:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
• Eu recebo o email do Pedro amanhã.

Both look normal to a European Portuguese speaker.

Could Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã be understood as a habit, like “I receive Pedro’s email tomorrow (every time)”?

With amanhã in the sentence, speakers will naturally interpret it as a single future event, not a habit.

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro. (no time expression)
  → could be habitual: I (usually) receive Pedro’s email.

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.
  → clearly future, because of amanhã.

So the time adverbial amanhã removes the ambiguity.

Would Brazilians say this sentence the same way?

Brazilians will understand it perfectly, and the sentence is also correct in Brazilian Portuguese:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

However, in everyday Brazilian speech you might more often hear:

• Eu vou receber o e‑mail do Pedro amanhã.

Also, in Brazil it’s more common to omit the article before names in many regions, so you may also hear:

• Eu recebo o e‑mail de Pedro amanhã.
  (though do Pedro is also used, especially in some regions)

So the main differences are frequency of structures, not grammar: your original sentence is fine in both varieties.