Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ela ficou envergonhada quando errou o nome do colega. - She became embarrassed when she got the colleague’s name wrong.

Ela ficou envergonhada = She became/got embarrassed (the embarrassment started at that moment).
Ela estava envergonhada = She was embarrassed (describes a state, without focusing on when it began).

In this sentence, the idea is that the mistake caused a new feeling of embarrassment, so ficou is more natural than estava.

What exactly does “ficar” mean in this sentence?

Here ficar does not mean “to stay” in the literal sense of staying in a place.

With an adjective, ficar often means:

to become / to get:
- ficar triste – to get sad
- ficar nervoso – to get nervous
- ficar envergonhada – to get embarrassed

So Ela ficou envergonhada is better understood as “She became/ended up embarrassed” rather than “She stayed embarrassed.”

Why is it “envergonhada” with an -a at the end and not “envergonhado”?

Portuguese adjectives usually agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Ela is feminine singular.
So the adjective must also be feminine singular: envergonhada.
Masculine singular would be envergonhado:
- Ele ficou envergonhado – He got embarrassed.

If the subject were plural, you’d also change the number:

Elas ficaram envergonhadas.
Eles ficaram envergonhados.

Is there any difference between “ficar envergonhada” and “ficar com vergonha”?

They’re very close in meaning, but there’s a nuance:

ficar envergonhada – uses an adjective. Sounds slightly more descriptive, like “to become embarrassed.”
ficar com vergonha – literally “to end up with shame/embarrassment.”
This is very common and a bit more colloquial/natural in everyday speech.

Both are correct in European Portuguese:

Ela ficou envergonhada.
Ela ficou com vergonha.

You can use either; context and personal style decide which one sounds better.

Can I say “embaraçada” instead of “envergonhada”?

In European Portuguese, embaraçada usually means “pregnant”, not “embarrassed.”

So:

Ela ficou embaraçada. will normally be understood as “She got pregnant”, not “She got embarrassed,” which is a classic false friend for English speakers.

To say “embarrassed,” use:

envergonhada (adjective), or
com vergonha (expression).

Why is it “quando errou” and not “quando errava”?

In Portuguese, the pretérito perfeito (errou) is used for completed actions in the past, often seen as a single event.

quando errou o nome = when she got the name wrong (that one time)
→ a single, finished action.

The pretérito imperfeito (errava) would sound like an ongoing or repeated action:

quando errava o nome do colega suggests she used to repeatedly get the colleague’s name wrong, or that the mistake was in progress.

Here, it’s a single mistake that triggered the embarrassment, so errou is the natural choice.

Who is the subject of “errou”? Why is there no pronoun?

The subject of errou is still “ela” (the same “she” from the first part of the sentence).

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: when the subject is clear from context, you can (and usually do) omit the pronoun.

So:

Ela ficou envergonhada quando (ela) errou o nome do colega.

The second ela is normally dropped because it would sound repetitive. The verb ending -ou in errou already indicates 3rd person singular (“he/she/it”).

What does “errou o nome do colega” literally mean?

Literally, it’s “(she) got the colleague’s name wrong”.

errar = to make a mistake, to get something wrong
o nome = the name
do colega = of the colleague (male colleague here)

So errar + o/a + [thing] often means “to get [that thing] wrong”:

errar a resposta – to get the answer wrong
errar o número – to get the number wrong
errar o nome – to get the name wrong

Could I say “enganou-se no nome do colega” instead of “errou o nome do colega”?

Yes, you could, and it’s also natural:

Ela ficou envergonhada quando se enganou no nome do colega.

Differences:

errar o nome = more direct: “get the name wrong.”
enganar-se no nome = reflexive; literally “to be mistaken about the name.”

Both are fine in European Portuguese. Errar o nome is a bit shorter and more straightforward; enganar-se sounds slightly more “polite/softened,” but this is a subtle difference.

Why is it “o nome do colega” with the article “o”? Would “nome de colega” be possible?

Here, “o nome do colega” is the natural, correct structure:

o nome – the name
do colega – of the colleague (de + o = do)

You normally say “o nome de alguém” (“someone’s name”) with the definite article:

o nome do professor – the teacher’s name
o nome da aluna – the (female) student’s name

“nome de colega” without the article sounds wrong in this context; it would mean something like “a colleague kind of name,” not “the colleague’s name.”

How do we know the colleague is male from “do colega”, when “colega” ends in -a?

In Portuguese, colega is an epicene noun: it keeps the same form for both genders, and the article/preposition shows the gender:

o colega – the male colleague
a colega – the female colleague

In the sentence:

do colega = de + o colega → of the (male) colleague

If it were a female colleague, it would be:

da colega = de + a colega → of the (female) colleague

Could the whole sentence be reordered as “Ela errou o nome do colega e ficou envergonhada”? Is that different?

Yes, you can say:

Ela errou o nome do colega e ficou envergonhada.

Meaning is essentially the same: she got the name wrong, and as a result, she was embarrassed.

Subtle difference:

quando errou o nome do colega highlights the moment: at the moment when she got it wrong, she became embarrassed.
errou … e ficou envergonhada presents two sequential actions: first she got it wrong, then she became embarrassed.

In most everyday contexts, they’re interchangeable.

How would this sentence change if the subject were male?

You would only change the parts that agree in gender (the adjective):

Ela ficou envergonhada quando errou o nome do colega.
→ Ele ficou envergonhado quando errou o nome do colega.

Changes:

Ela → Ele
envergonhada → envergonhado

Everything else stays the same, because ficou and errou are already 3rd person singular and do not change with gender.

How is “ficou envergonhada” pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (simplified):

ficou → fee-KOH (stress on -cou; final ou like English “oh”)
envergonhada → eng-vair-gon-YAH-duh (very roughly)

More precisely:

en-: nasal “e”, a bit like French “en”
-ver-: like “vair” but shorter
-go-: close to “gon” but with a less strong “n”
-nh-: like the “ny” in “canyon”
-a-da: unstressed final -a is quite reduced, close to an “uh” sound

Spoken quickly, “ficou envergonhada” tends to flow together, with some vowel reduction:

[fi-ˈko ĩvɾɣu-ˈɲaðɐ] (IPA approximation for European Portuguese).