A culpa nem sempre é clara, e o tribunal tenta controlar as emoções de toda a gente.

In this sentence, a culpa can be understood as both legal guilt and responsibility/blame for what happened.

Portuguese culpa covers a range of ideas that English often splits:

• guilt (in a legal or moral sense)
• fault (it’s someone’s fault)
• blame (who is to blame)

Here, in a context with o tribunal (the court), it suggests:

• who is legally guilty, and
• who deserves the blame for the situation.

Portuguese often uses the definite article with abstract nouns where English uses no article.

So:

• A culpa nem sempre é clara → literally “The guilt is not always clear.”
• English normally omits the: “Guilt is not always clear.”

In Portuguese, saying a culpa sounds natural and general here; dropping the article (Culpa nem sempre é clara) sounds unusual and incomplete in this sentence.

Nem here means “not” / “not even” in the sense of “not always”.

Common patterns:

• nem sempre = not always
• nem tudo = not everything
• nem todos = not everyone / not all

Não sempre is not idiomatic in Portuguese; you almost always use nem sempre.
So:

• ✅ A culpa nem sempre é clara. = Guilt is not always clear.
• ❌ A culpa não sempre é clara. (unnatural)

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

• culpa is a feminine singular noun.
• So the adjective must also be feminine singular: clara.

Patterns:

• culpa clara (feminine singular)
• erro claro (masculine singular)
• culpas claras (feminine plural)
• erros claros (masculine plural)

Both é clara and está clara are possible, but they have different nuances.

• é clara (with ser) is used for:

  • general truths,
  • typical characteristics,
  • more permanent or defining descriptions.

  A culpa nem sempre é clara.
  → “Guilt is not always clear” (as a general fact about how guilt is).

• está clara (with estar) would focus more on a current / temporary state:

  • A culpa não está clara neste caso.
    → “The guilt is not clear in this case (right now).”

In your sentence, we’re talking about how guilt is in general, so é clara is the natural choice.

The natural, idiomatic order is:

• A culpa nem sempre é clara.

Placing nem sempre before the verb is the standard way to say “not always” about a state or action.

Options like:

• A culpa é nem sempre clara.
  sound wrong or at least very unnatural in Portuguese. The sequence é nem sempre is not used in standard speech.

So, stick with: [subject] + nem sempre + [verb] + [rest].

In Portuguese, it is more common than in English to put a comma before e when:

• you are joining two full clauses (each with its own subject and verb), and
• there is a slight pause or change of focus.

Here we have two clauses:

1. A culpa nem sempre é clara
2. o tribunal tenta controlar as emoções de toda a gente

So writing:

• A culpa nem sempre é clara, e o tribunal tenta controlar...
  is perfectly normal in Portuguese punctuation.

In English we would usually write:

• “Guilt is not always clear and the court tries to control everyone’s emotions.”
  (without the comma).

In Portuguese, institutions and places are usually used with the definite article when we talk about them in a general or specific way:

• o tribunal = the court
• a escola = the school
• o governo = the government

So:

• o tribunal tenta controlar...
  → “the court tries to control...”

Dropping the article (tribunal tenta controlar...) sounds unnatural in this sentence, unless it’s part of a newspaper headline or a very telegraphic style.

Tenta is the 3rd person singular present tense of tentar (to try).

• o tribunal tenta = the court tries / is trying

In Portuguese, the simple present is often used for:

• general, habitual actions:
  
  • O tribunal tenta controlar as emoções...
    → “The court tries to control people’s emotions” (this is what it normally does).

If you needed to stress something happening right now, you could use the continuous:

• O tribunal está a tentar controlar... = “The court is trying to control...”

Yes. Toda a gente means “everybody / everyone”.

Important points:

• Very common in European Portuguese.
• Grammatically, gente is singular and feminine, even though it means many people.

Synonyms (with slightly different feel):

• toda a gente – very common, informal–neutral
• todas as pessoas – more literal, “all the people”
• toda a população – “the whole population” (more specific)

In this sentence, as emoções de toda a gente = “everyone’s emotions”.

De toda a gente is the normal, idiomatic way to say “of everybody / everyone’s”.

• de toda a gente = of everybody
• de todos = of all (people/things), but you usually need a noun:
  
  • de todas as pessoas (of all the people)
• toda gente without the article (a) is much less standard; the usual form is toda a gente.

So:

• ✅ as emoções de toda a gente (everyone’s emotions)
• ✅ as emoções de todas as pessoas (more literal)
• ❌ as emoções de toda gente (non‑standard / sounds off in EP).

It takes a singular verb, because gente is grammatically singular.

• Toda a gente está nervosa. = Everybody is nervous.
• Toda a gente sabe disso. = Everybody knows that.

So if toda a gente were the subject:

• Toda a gente tenta controlar as emoções.
  → Everybody tries to control their emotions.

Even though the meaning is plural, the grammar is singular.

Emoções is plural because we’re talking about the various emotions that people feel: fear, anger, sadness, etc.

• controlar as emoções de toda a gente
  → control everyone’s emotions (all the different feelings).

If you said controlar a emoção de toda a gente, it would sound more abstract or unusual, as if there were one single emotion. The plural is the natural choice in everyday language here.