Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana a sentir-se mais forte fisicamente. - Walking every day has been helping Ana feel stronger physically.

In European Portuguese, this tense is used mainly for repeated or habitual actions that started in the past and continue up to now. Here it roughly corresponds to English “has been helping”:

Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana…
≈ Walking every day has been helping Ana…

If it were about a single, completed event, you would usually use the simple past:

Caminhar todos os dias ajudou a Ana…
Walking every day helped Ana… (once / over a finished period)

Why is caminhar (infinitive) used at the start, and not something like caminhando?

Portuguese normally uses the infinitive when a verb acts as a noun / subject, where English uses the -ing form:

Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana…
Walking every day has been helping Ana…

So caminhar here is functioning as “the act of walking”.

The form caminhando is the gerúndio (gerund), and in Portuguese it is not used as a subject like English walking is. Instead, it usually expresses an action happening at the same time as another:

Caminhando pela praia, encontrei a Ana.
Walking along the beach, I met Ana.

Using caminhando todos os dias as the subject would sound odd in Portuguese; the natural choice is the infinitive caminhar.

Could we say Caminhar todos os dias ajuda a Ana… instead of tem ajudado? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Caminhar todos os dias ajuda a Ana a sentir-se mais forte fisicamente.

That’s grammatically correct and very natural.

Nuance:

ajuda (simple present) – states a general fact or habit.
Walking every day helps Ana feel physically stronger (in general).
tem ajudado (pretérito perfeito composto) – emphasizes that this is a repeated process starting in the past and continuing up to now, closer to has been helping:
- Nos últimos meses, caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana…
  In the last few months, walking every day has been helping Ana…

Both are possible; ajuda feels more general, tem ajudado highlights the ongoing, up‑to‑now experience.

Why is there an a before Ana in tem ajudado a Ana? What does it mean?

The a before Ana is not “to” in the English sense; it is the definite article used as a personal object marker.

In standard European Portuguese, when a person’s proper name is a direct object, you usually put the article:

Vejo a Ana. – I see Ana.
Vou ajudar a Ana. – I’m going to help Ana.

So in tem ajudado a Ana, the verb ajudar takes a direct object (whom is it helping? Ana), and a Ana marks that object.

In more informal speech some people drop the article and say ajudar Ana, but in careful / standard language a Ana is the norm.

What about the second a before sentir‑se – what is its role?

The second a (before sentir‑se) is a preposition that belongs to the pattern:

ajudar alguém a + infinitive
to help someone to do something

So we have:

tem ajudado a Ana a sentir-se…
literally: has helped Ana to feel…

Structure:

tem ajudado – has helped
a Ana – (direct object) Ana
a sentir-se – to feel herself

So the two a’s have different roles:

a Ana – article marking a person as direct object.
a sentir-se – preposition a introducing the infinitive (a + sentir-se = to feel).

Why is it sentir‑se and not just sentir?

Portuguese distinguishes:

sentir – to feel something (an object: pain, cold, etc.)
sentir‑se – to feel (oneself) in a certain state (tired, strong, happy, etc.)

Examples:

Sinto dor. – I feel pain.
Sinto frio. – I feel cold.
Sinto-me cansado. – I feel tired.
A Ana sente-se mais forte fisicamente. – Ana feels physically stronger.

In the sentence you gave, Ana is in a state (feeling stronger), so Portuguese uses the reflexive form sentir‑se.

Why is the pronoun after the verb (sentir‑se) and joined with a hyphen?

In European Portuguese, clitic pronouns like me, te, se, nos, vos are usually placed after:

infinitives (sentir‑se)
gerunds (sentindo-se)
affirmative imperatives (sente-se, sentem-se)

When they come after the verb, they attach with a hyphen:

sentir + se → sentir-se
ajudar + se → ajudar-se

So sentir‑se is the standard spelling.

Contrast with placement before a conjugated verb (often after a negative or certain words):

Ela não se sente bem. – She doesn’t feel well.
Já se sente melhor. – She already feels better.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the pronoun is often placed before the verb in many cases (se sentir), but in European Portuguese the default with infinitives is sentir‑se.

Why caminhar and not andar here? Don’t both mean “to walk”?

Both caminhar and andar can translate as to walk, but their usage differs:

caminhar – often implies walking as an activity, especially for exercise, health, or leisure:
- Gosto de caminhar ao fim da tarde. – I like to go for a walk in the late afternoon.
andar – very general: to walk, to move around, to go; it covers a lot of uses:
- Ando muito a pé. – I walk a lot / I get around on foot a lot.
- Ele anda pela cidade. – He walks around the city.

In a health‑context sentence like:

Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana…

caminhar sounds especially natural, because it clearly suggests walking as a deliberate, repeated activity for well‑being.
Andar todos os dias would be understood, but it’s less idiomatic in this specific “exercise” context.

Why is it todos os dias and not todos dias or cada dia?

Pattern:

todos + os/as + plural noun

So you say:

todos os dias – every day / all the days
todos os meses – every month
todas as semanas – every week

You cannot normally drop the article here; todos dias is ungrammatical in standard Portuguese.

cada dia also exists and means each day, but it can feel a bit more emphatic or literary in many contexts:

Cada dia é uma nova oportunidade. – Each day is a new opportunity.

In your sentence, todos os dias is the most natural way to say every day.

Why is it mais forte fisicamente and not mais fisicamente forte?

Both are possible, but mais forte fisicamente is more natural.

Typical patterns:

adjective + adverb:
- forte fisicamente – physically strong
- mais forte fisicamente – physically stronger

You can say fisicamente mais forte, especially if you want to highlight “physically”:

Ela está fisicamente mais forte.

Mais fisicamente forte tends to sound heavier and is less common. Native speakers usually keep mais forte together and put fisicamente either:

at the end: mais forte fisicamente, or
at the start of the predicate: fisicamente mais forte.

Does forte change for gender? Why isn’t it feminine for Ana?

Forte is one of those adjectives in Portuguese that has the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular.

Forms:

singular: forte (masc. and fem.)
- um homem forte – a strong man
- uma mulher forte – a strong woman
plural: fortes (masc. and fem.)
- homens fortes – strong men
- mulheres fortes – strong women

So for Ana (feminine singular), forte is already the correct form; there is no separate forta or similar.

Is the word order fixed, or can we move parts of the sentence around?

Some movement is possible, but you need to keep certain groups together and respect normal rhythm.

Original:

Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana a sentir-se mais forte fisicamente.

Common, still natural variants include:

Caminhar todos os dias tem ajudado a Ana a sentir-se fisicamente mais forte.
Caminhar todos os dias ajuda a Ana a sentir-se mais forte fisicamente. (using ajuda instead of tem ajudado)

You can also front todos os dias for emphasis:

Todos os dias, caminhar tem ajudado a Ana a sentir-se mais forte fisicamente.
(understood, but less smooth, because caminhar todos os dias is normally kept as a unit)

You generally would not split the core chunks in strange ways, for example:

✗ Tem ajudado a Ana caminhar todos os dias a sentir-se… (confusing)

So:

keep caminhar todos os dias together as the subject,
keep a sentir-se together,
place fisicamente near forte.

Within those constraints, you have some flexibility for emphasis, but the original order is the most straightforward and natural.