Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Agora sou adulto e tento manter uma rotina com mais disciplina. - Now I am an adult and I try to keep a routine with more discipline.

Sou adulto = “I am an adult” as a permanent identity / life stage
Estou adulto would sound strange; it would imply being “in an adult state” temporarily, which doesn’t really make sense.

So sou adulto is the natural choice when talking about being an adult in general.

Could you also say sou um adulto? What’s the difference between sou adulto and sou um adulto?

Both are grammatically correct, but there’s a nuance:

Sou adulto = “I am adult / I’m an adult”
- Describes a quality or stage of life.
- Slightly more general and more common in this type of sentence.
Sou um adulto = “I am an adult (person)”
- Emphasises that you are one adult among other people.
- Can sound more concrete or contrasting, e.g. “I’m not a child anymore, I’m an adult.”

In your sentence, sou adulto sounds more natural and idiomatic.

Why is it tento manter and not just tento or tento ter?

Tento = “I try”
Manter = “to maintain / to keep (up)”

Portuguese, like English, often uses tentar + infinitive:

tento manter = “I try to maintain / keep (up)”

You could say:

tento ter uma rotina = “I try to have a routine”
- This focuses more on having a routine at all.

But tento manter uma rotina focuses on keeping a routine consistently, which fits better with the idea of discipline.

Is tento the present tense of tentar? How is this verb conjugated?

Yes, tento is the 1st person singular, present indicative of tentar (to try).

Present tense of tentar (European Portuguese):

eu tento – I try
tu tentas – you try (informal singular)
ele/ela/você tenta – he/she/you try
nós tentamos – we try
vocês tentam – you (plural) try
eles/elas tentam – they try

So eu tento manter… = “I try to maintain…”.

Why is manter in the infinitive form after tento?

In Portuguese, after tentar, the next verb is normally in the infinitive:

tentar
- infinitive
tento comer – I try to eat
tento estudar – I try to study
tento manter – I try to maintain

Just like English “try to do”, Portuguese uses tentar + infinitive. So manter stays in its base form.

Why is it uma rotina and not a rotina? What’s the difference?

uma rotina = “a routine / some routine” (indefinite)
a rotina = “the routine” (specific, already known)

In this sentence:

tento manter uma rotina suggests “a (general) routine”, not a particular one previously defined in the conversation.
If you said tento manter a rotina, it would imply a specific routine that both speaker and listener already know about (e.g. “my usual routine that we already talked about”).

Could you say uma rotina mais disciplinada instead of uma rotina com mais disciplina?

Yes, both are correct, but with a small nuance:

uma rotina com mais disciplina
- Literally: “a routine with more discipline”
- Focuses on adding more discipline to the routine.
uma rotina mais disciplinada
- Literally: “a more disciplined routine”
- Focuses on the routine itself being more disciplined (as a quality).

In everyday speech, com mais disciplina is very natural and maybe slightly more common in this exact kind of sentence.

What does disciplina cover here? Is it like “self-discipline”?

Yes, in this context disciplina is very close to “self‑discipline” or “self‑control”:

being organised
sticking to schedules
resisting distractions
following rules or plans you set for yourself

So uma rotina com mais disciplina implies being more consistent, structured, and self‑controlled in your daily life.

Why is the sentence Agora sou adulto e tento manter… and not Agora eu sou adulto e eu tento manter…? Is dropping eu normal?

Yes, dropping the subject pronoun (like eu) is very normal in Portuguese.

Verb endings already show the subject:

sou = must be “I am” (eu)
tento = must be “I try” (eu)

You can say:

Agora sou adulto e tento manter… (most natural)
Agora eu sou adulto e eu tento manter… (very emphatic, a bit heavy)

Adding eu is usually for emphasis or contrast, not required for basic meaning.

Does agora mean “now” in the literal sense, or can it also mean “nowadays / at this stage of my life”?

Agora can mean both:

literal “now, at this moment”
“nowadays / these days / at this stage”, depending on context

In your sentence:

Agora sou adulto…
- Most likely means “Now that I’m an adult / At this stage of my life, I am an adult and I try to…”
- It’s not just “this exact second”, but a new phase of life compared to the past.

Is the word order Agora sou adulto fixed? Could I say Sou adulto agora?

Both are possible, but the nuance changes slightly:

Agora sou adulto
- Very natural and common.
- Slight emphasis on the time/phase: “Now (as opposed to before), I am an adult.”
Sou adulto agora
- Also correct.
- Slightly more emphasis on being an adult now, as a result or conclusion.

In practice, Agora sou adulto sounds a bit smoother and more idiomatic in this type of reflective sentence.

Is this sentence clearly European Portuguese, or could it also be Brazilian Portuguese?

The sentence:

Agora sou adulto e tento manter uma rotina com mais disciplina.

is perfectly natural in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.
There’s nothing in the grammar or vocabulary that is specific to Portugal only.

Differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese here would mainly be in pronunciation, not in the written form.