Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ela adormece vendo vídeos curtos de português no telemóvel. - She falls asleep watching short Portuguese videos on her phone.

Ela adormece vendo vídeos… = She falls asleep while watching videos…
Ela dorme vendo vídeos… would sound more like She sleeps while watching videos…, which doesn’t really make sense.

Here the focus is on the process of falling asleep, so adormece is the natural choice.

Why is the simple present adormece used, and not something like está a adormecer?

In Portuguese, the simple present is very commonly used for habits and routines, just like English:

Ela adormece vendo vídeos…
= She (usually / always / habitually) falls asleep watching videos…

If you say:

Ela está a adormecer vendo/a ver vídeos…

you’re talking about right now, at this moment: She is (currently) falling asleep while watching videos…

So:

adormece → neutral, habitual statement (which matches your sentence)
está a adormecer → ongoing action at this moment

What exactly is vendo grammatically, and what does it do in this sentence?

Vendo is the gerund form of ver (to see / to watch).

Form:

ver → vendo (seeing / watching)
like English see → seeing, watch → watching

Function here: it forms a kind of adverbial clause of time/manner, meaning while watching:

Ela adormece vendo vídeos curtos…
≈ She falls asleep while watching short videos…

So vendo describes what she is doing at the time she falls asleep.

In European Portuguese, is it OK to use vendo, or should I say a ver instead?

Both are grammatically correct, but there is a stylistic difference in European Portuguese (EP):

Ela adormece vendo vídeos curtos…
– correct; sounds more formal / written and is also very natural in Brazilian Portuguese.
Ela adormece a ver vídeos curtos…
– also correct; in European Portuguese, this structure (a
- infinitive) is very common in speech to express continuous or accompanying actions.

In everyday EP, you’ll very often hear:

Está a ver televisão. – She’s watching TV.
Adormeço a ler. – I fall asleep reading.

So in Portugal:

Both forms are fine.
a ver is often more idiomatic in casual spoken language.

Does vendo mean “seeing” or “watching” here? Why is it ver and not assistir?

Literally, ver means to see, but in practice it very often means to watch:

ver um filme / ver um vídeo / ver televisão
– to watch a film / a video / TV

So vendo vídeos is naturally understood as watching videos, not just seeing them accidentally.

About assistir:

In Brazilian Portuguese, assistir (a) is very common for to watch:
assistir a um filme.
In European Portuguese, ver is much more common with videos, TV, etc.
You can also say assistir a um filme, but ver um filme is more frequent and very natural.

So in Portugal, ver vídeos is the most usual choice.

Is the subject pronoun Ela necessary? Could we just say Adormece vendo vídeos…?

Portuguese is a “pro‑drop” language: you can often omit subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Ela adormece vendo vídeos… – She falls asleep…
Adormece vendo vídeos… – also grammatically correct; the subject (she/he/it) would be understood from context.

However:

If you’re starting a new sentence with no context, or you want to avoid ambiguity, using Ela is clearer.
In written examples like this, it’s common to keep Ela so the subject is explicit, especially for learners.

Why is it vídeos curtos and not curtos vídeos? And why curtos (masculine plural)?

Two things are happening: word order and agreement.

Word order (adjective position)
In Portuguese, most adjectives normally come after the noun:
- vídeos curtos – short videos
- livros interessantes – interesting books
Putting the adjective before the noun is possible but less common and usually adds a special nuance (more emotional, literary, or emphasizing the adjective).
curtos vídeos would sound unusual or poetic, not neutral everyday speech.
Agreement
Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number:
- vídeo → masculine singular
- vídeos → masculine plural
- curto (singular) → curtos (masculine plural)
So:
- vídeo curto – one short video
- vídeos curtos – short videos (plural)
curtas would be feminine plural, which doesn’t match vídeos.

What does de português mean here? How is it different from em português?

Both are possible in Portuguese, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

vídeos curtos de português
→ videos of / about Portuguese, usually understood as
videos for learning Portuguese or videos whose subject is Portuguese (the language).
vídeos curtos em português
→ videos in Portuguese, i.e.
videos whose audio/dialogue is in the Portuguese language (but they could be about cooking, history, etc.).

So in your sentence:

de português focuses on the topic (Portuguese as a subject).
em português focuses on the language used in the videos.

Why is there no article before vídeos? Could we say uns vídeos curtos de português?

Portuguese often omits the indefinite article in the plural when you’re talking about things in general:

Ela adormece vendo vídeos curtos de português.
– She falls asleep watching short Portuguese videos (in general).

Adding uns:

Ela adormece vendo uns vídeos curtos de português.

is also grammatically correct, but it changes the nuance:

uns vídeos curtos ≈ some short videos (a certain, but vague, number)
Without uns, it feels more generic and habitual: she watches that kind of video, not a specific small batch.

So your sentence without uns is the most natural for a general habit.

What does no telemóvel literally mean, and how is it formed?

No telemóvel is a contraction:

em (in, on, at) + o (the, masculine singular) → no

So literally:

no telemóvel = in/on the mobile phone

In English we would usually say on her phone in this context. Portuguese can drop the possessive when it’s obvious whose phone it is:

no telemóvel
– usually understood here as on her phone.

Is telemóvel specific to European Portuguese? What would Brazilians say?

Yes, telemóvel is the standard word in European Portuguese for mobile phone / cell phone.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the common word is:

celular

So:

Portugal: no telemóvel – on the phone
Brazil: no celular

(Everything else in the sentence would also be slightly more Brazilian if you kept vendo, but telemóvel itself is clearly European Portuguese.)

Can we change the word order, for example putting no telemóvel earlier in the sentence?

Word order in Portuguese is somewhat flexible, but you should be careful with what seems to modify what.

Your original:

Ela adormece vendo vídeos curtos de português no telemóvel.

Here, no telemóvel is closest to vídeos, so it naturally reads as:

short Portuguese videos on her phone.

If you say:

Ela adormece no telemóvel vendo vídeos curtos de português.

this can sound like:

She falls asleep *on the phone (physically lying on it) while watching short Portuguese videos,
or even *while on the phone (on a call), depending on context. It’s less clear that no telemóvel belongs to vídeos.

You could also move things slightly without big change:

Ela adormece vendo, no telemóvel, vídeos curtos de português.
(more formal/written, but still clear)

So: small movements are possible, but keeping no telemóvel near vídeos is the clearest way to show that the videos are on the phone.