Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Com treino e paciência, ela vai conquistar melhor equilíbrio no joelho magoado. - With training and patience, she will achieve better balance in the injured knee.

com treino e paciência ≈ with training and patience (in general)
com o treino e a paciência would sound like with the training and the patience — referring to some specific, known training/patience.

Here we mean: any appropriate training and general patience over time, so the version without articles is more natural.

What is the function of com at the start of the sentence?

Com here is a preposition meaning with, and the whole phrase com treino e paciência expresses a condition / means:

It answers “How will she achieve better balance?” → With training and patience.
Grammatically: it’s a prepositional phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence to set the context in terms of means or circumstances.

You could move it:

Ela vai conquistar melhor equilíbrio no joelho magoado com treino e paciência.

The meaning stays the same; starting with com just emphasizes the idea that training and patience are key.

Why is it ela vai conquistar instead of just a simple future like ela conquistará?

Portuguese has two ways to talk about the future:

Periphrastic future: vai + infinitive
- ela vai conquistar
  This is very common in spoken and informal Portuguese and often feels more immediate or natural.
Synthetic future: conquistará
- ela conquistará melhor equilíbrio…
  This sounds more formal or written, and in everyday speech in Portugal it’s less frequent.

Both are correct, but ela vai conquistar is the more natural choice in most modern, spoken European Portuguese.

Why use conquistar here? Doesn’t it literally mean “to conquer”?

Yes, literally conquistar means to conquer, but in Portuguese it is often used figuratively with the meaning to achieve / to win / to gain after effort.

In this context:

vai conquistar melhor equilíbrio ≈ she will achieve / gain better balance (through effort).

Some natural alternatives:

vai ganhar melhor equilíbrio
vai conseguir um melhor equilíbrio
vai recuperar melhor equilíbrio

Conquistar emphasizes effort, struggle, and gradual achievement, which fits well with the idea of recovery through training and patience.

Why is it melhor equilíbrio and not um melhor equilíbrio?

Both are possible, but there is a slight nuance:

melhor equilíbrio
Generic, more neutral. It focuses on improvement compared to now: better balance.
um melhor equilíbrio
Feels a bit more specific or emphatic, like a better kind/degree of balance. It can sound a bit heavier in an everyday sentence.

In European Portuguese, especially in this kind of medical/rehab context, melhor equilíbrio (without um) is very natural and smooth.

Is melhor here a comparative (better) or a superlative (best)?

In Portuguese, melhor can be:

Comparative: better
Superlative: the best

Here, because there is no context of “the best possible balance” or comparison among many options, melhor equilíbrio clearly means better balance (comparative), i.e., better than the balance she has now.

If we wanted the best balance, we’d normally make that more explicit, e.g.:

o melhor equilíbrio possível – the best balance possible

What does no in no joelho magoado stand for?

No is a contraction of the preposition em (in / on / at) + the masculine singular article o:

em + o = no

So:

no joelho magoado = in/on the injured knee

We use em here because we’re talking about the location/area where she’ll gain better balance: in that knee.

Why is it joelho magoado and not magoado joelho?

In Portuguese, adjectives normally come after the noun:

joelho magoado – injured knee
carro novo – new car
livro interessante – interesting book

Putting the adjective before the noun (magoado joelho) would sound wrong here.

So:

joelho = knee (masculine)
magoado = hurt / injured, agreeing in gender and number with joelho (masculine singular).

Why is the adjective magoado in the masculine, and how would it change?

Joelho is a masculine noun in Portuguese, so the adjective must also be masculine:

o joelho magoado – the injured knee (masculine singular)

Other forms:

a perna magoada – the injured leg (feminine singular)
os joelhos magoados – the injured knees (masculine plural)
as pernas magoadas – the injured legs (feminine plural)

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

Could we say no seu joelho magoado instead of no joelho magoado? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

no seu joelho magoado – in/on her injured knee

Difference in nuance:

no joelho magoado
In context, it is normally understood it’s her knee. Portuguese often omits possessives when the owner is clear.
no seu joelho magoado
Explicitly says her knee. This can be used for clarity if there might be confusion, or for emphasis, but it’s not necessary here.

In many clinical or descriptive contexts, no joelho magoado without the possessive is perfectly natural.

What exactly does treino mean here, and how is it different from prática or treinamento?

In European Portuguese:

treino = training, practice sessions, rehab exercises, workout.
Very common and natural here.
prática = practice (as a concept), or professional practice.
In this sentence, com prática e paciência would be understandable but less idiomatic.
treinamento is used, but it is more common in Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, treino is the default everyday word.

So com treino e paciência is the most natural expression for “with training and patience” in Portugal.

Could we say ela vai ganhar or ela vai conseguir instead of ela vai conquistar? Do they sound different?

Yes, both are possible:

ela vai conquistar melhor equilíbrio
Suggests effort and a kind of “victory” over the problem.
ela vai ganhar melhor equilíbrio
Slightly more neutral; ganhar can feel a bit more like “get / gain”.
ela vai conseguir melhor equilíbrio (or vai conseguir um melhor equilíbrio)
Highlights the result: she will manage to have better balance.

All are correct. In a rehabilitation context, conquistar and conseguir are particularly common and natural.

Is the subject pronoun ela really necessary, or could we drop it?

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns are often omitted when the verb form already shows the person.

So you could say:

Vai conquistar melhor equilíbrio no joelho magoado.

This is grammatically correct. However:

In short, isolated sentences, especially in written materials for learners or patients, using ela makes the subject explicit and avoids confusion.
In a longer context where it’s obvious who we’re talking about, speakers often omit the pronoun.

So ela vai conquistar… is completely natural and slightly clearer, especially out of context.