O treinador explica que um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo.

The (male) trainer explains that good stretching protects the knee and the ankle.

Breakdown of O treinador explica que um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo.

• bom: good
• um: a
• e: and
• que: that
• explicar: to explain
• proteger: to protect
• o alongamento: the stretching
• o treinador: the trainer
• o joelho: the knee
• o tornozelo: the ankle

Questions & Answers about O treinador explica que um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo.

In this sentence, what exactly does treinador mean? Is it always a sports coach?

Treinador is usually a sports coach in European Portuguese — someone who trains athletes, a team, or a person physically.

• In a gym context, treinador can be like a personal trainer.
• In school, a PE teacher is more often professor de Educação Física, not treinador.
• In other contexts, treinador is not normally used for things like life coach, vocal coach, etc.

So here, O treinador = The (sports/fitness) coach.

How would you say “the (female) coach” in Portuguese?

Portuguese marks grammatical gender, so:

• O treinador = the (male) coach
• A treinadora = the (female) coach

The rest of the sentence stays the same:

• A treinadora explica que um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo.

What is the function of que in explica que um bom alongamento protege…? Can I leave it out, like English sometimes drops “that”?

Here que is a conjunction meaning that, introducing a clause:

• explica que… = explains that…

Structure:

• O treinador explica (main clause)
• que um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo (subordinate clause, “that a good stretch protects…”)

In Portuguese, you normally cannot omit this que:

• ✅ O treinador explica que um bom alongamento protege…
• ❌ O treinador explica um bom alongamento protege… (ungrammatical)

So, unlike English, you must keep que here.

Could we use porque instead of que in this sentence?

No. Porque means because, not that.

• que introduces a statement:
  
  • Ele explica que um bom alongamento protege… = He explains that a good stretch protects…
• porque introduces a reason:
  
  • Ele explica porque um bom alongamento protege… ≈ He explains why / for what reason a good stretch protects…

Your sentence is not giving a reason for explaining; it’s giving the content of what he explains. So que is correct.

Why is the verb protege in the singular even though we have two things, o joelho e o tornozelo?

Because the subject of protege is um bom alongamento, which is singular.

Structure of the subordinate clause:

• Subject: um bom alongamento (a good stretch)
• Verb: protege (protects – 3rd person singular)
• Objects: o joelho e o tornozelo (the knee and the ankle)

So the verb agrees with um bom alongamento, not with o joelho e o tornozelo.

You would only use plural if the subject were plural:

• Bons alongamentos protegem o joelho e o tornozelo.
  (Good stretches protect the knee and ankle.)

Why do we say o joelho e o tornozelo instead of something like o teu joelho or o seu tornozelo?

In Portuguese, body parts are very often referred to with the definite article (o, a, os, as) rather than a possessive, especially when it’s clear whose body we’re talking about.

So:

• Um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo.
  Literally: A good stretch protects *the knee and the ankle.*
  Meaning: your knee and ankle in general, or knees/ankles in general.

If you want to be explicit about whose knee:

• … protege o teu joelho e o teu tornozelo. (informal “you”)
• … protege o seu joelho e o seu tornozelo. (formal “you” or “his/her” depending on context)

But using just o joelho / o tornozelo is the most natural, general way here.

How do we know it’s o joelho and o tornozelo (masculine), not feminine? Is there a rule?

There isn’t a reliable rule for the gender of every noun; it’s mostly a matter of memorizing each word with its article.

Some helpful tendencies:

• Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine: o tornozelo, o braço, o ombro.
• But joelho doesn’t clearly fit a simple rule; you just learn it as o joelho.

So, learn them as pairs:

• o joelho – the knee (masculine)
• o tornozelo – the ankle (masculine)

What exactly is um bom alongamento? Is alongamento a verb or a noun?

Alongamento is a noun; it means stretching in the sense of stretching exercises.

• alongamento = (a) stretch / stretching session
• fazer alongamentos = to do stretching exercises

The verb behind it is alongar (to stretch, to lengthen), but you wouldn’t use the verb form in this sentence:

• ✅ Um bom alongamento protege o joelho…
• ❌ Um bom alongar protege o joelho… (incorrect)

Why do we say um bom alongamento and not o bom alongamento or just bom alongamento?

The article changes the nuance:

• um bom alongamento = a good stretch, any good stretching session in general.
• o bom alongamento would sound more like good stretching (as a concept), a bit abstract or theoretical; it’s possible, but stylistically different.
• bom alongamento without an article is unusual here; with countable, concrete things like a stretch, Portuguese almost always uses an article (um or o).

So um bom alongamento is the most natural way to talk about “a good (one-time) stretch” that someone does.

Is proteger a regular verb? Why protege with g, and other forms with j?

Proteger is mostly regular in its endings, but has a spelling change to keep the same sound:

• Infinitive: proteger
• Eu protejo
• Tu proteges
• Ele / ela / você protege
• Nós protegemos
• Eles / elas / vocês protegem

In Portuguese, ge / gi are pronounced with the soft /ʒ/ sound (like the s in measure).
Before a or o, you need j to keep that sound (protejo) instead of ga/go.

So it’s regular in conjugation pattern, with a small spelling adjustment.

How do I pronounce the main words in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (not exact, but close enough for a learner):

• O treinador – roughly oo trey-nah-DOHR
  
  • treinador ≈ /tɾɐj.nɐ.ˈðoɾ/
• explica – sh-PLEE-kɐ
  
  • initial ex before a consonant often sounds like sh (/ʃ/): /ʃˈplikɐ/
• um – nasal, like French un: /ũ/
• bom – nasal bohn: /bõ/
• alongamento – uh-lon-gah-MEN-too (with on nasal)
  
  • /ɐ.lõ.gɐ.ˈmẽ.tu/
• joelho – zhoo-EH-lyoo
  
  • /ʒu.ˈe.ʎu/
• tornozelo – toor-no-ZE-loo
  
  • /tuɾ.nu.ˈze.lu/

European Portuguese tends to reduce unstressed vowels (like the first o in tornozelo sounding closer to /u/ or /ɐ/).

Do we have to say o joelho e o tornozelo, or can we say o joelho e tornozelo?

Both are possible:

• o joelho e o tornozelo – article repeated (very clear, slightly more careful/formal)
• o joelho e tornozelo – article only with the first noun (more compact, more colloquial in many contexts)

In writing and in neutral style, repeating the article is very common and often preferred, especially if each noun might have its own adjective or complement:

• o joelho direito e o tornozelo esquerdo
  (the right knee and the left ankle)

Could this clause be expressed in the passive, like “the knee and ankle are protected by a good stretch”? Is that natural in Portuguese?

Yes, you could say:

• O treinador explica que o joelho e o tornozelo são protegidos por um bom alongamento.

Grammatically fine, but:

• The original um bom alongamento protege o joelho e o tornozelo is more natural and direct in everyday speech.
• The passive (são protegidos por…) sounds a bit more formal or technical.

Should it be proteja (subjunctive) after explica que, instead of protege?

No. Protege (indicative) is correct here.

In Portuguese:

• Verbs like dizer, explicar, afirmar etc. followed by que usually take the indicative when they report something presented as a fact:
  
  • Ele explica que um bom alongamento protege o joelho…
• The subjunctive (proteja) is used after certain verbs/expressions of doubt, desire, emotion, evaluation, possibility, etc.:
  
  • Ele duvida que um bom alongamento proteja o joelho… (He doubts that a good stretch protects the knee…)

Here the coach is stating a fact, so protege (indicative) is the right form.