Ponho fruta e frutos secos na minha lancheira antes de sair de casa.

I put fruit and nuts in my lunchbox before leaving home.

Breakdown of Ponho fruta e frutos secos na minha lancheira antes de sair de casa.

• minha: my
• de: of
• a casa: the house
• e: and
• em: in
• de: from
• sair: to leave
• antes: before
• a fruta: the fruit
• pôr: to put
• o fruto seco: the nut
• a lancheira: the lunchbox

Questions & Answers about Ponho fruta e frutos secos na minha lancheira antes de sair de casa.

Why is it ponho and not something like põe or pôo?

Ponho is the 1st person singular (eu) of the verb pôr (to put).

The present tense of pôr is irregular:

• eu ponho – I put
• tu pões – you (singular, informal) put
• ele / ela / você põe – he / she / you (formal) put
• nós pomos – we put
• vocês / eles / elas põem – you (plural) / they put

So you must say eu ponho, not eu põe or eu pôo.
Põe is only used for ele/ela/você (he/she/you).

Why is the simple present (ponho) used and not something like “I am putting”?

In European Portuguese, the simple present is used much more often for habits and routines than in English.

• Ponho fruta e frutos secos na minha lancheira antes de sair de casa.
  = I put fruit and nuts in my lunchbox before leaving home / I always put…

English often prefers “I put” or “I usually put” or even “I’m putting” depending on context, but Portuguese sticks with the simple present (ponho) for general routines.
If you really wanted to stress the habitual idea, you could say:

• Costumo pôr fruta e frutos secos… – I usually put fruit and nuts…

Why is it fruta but frutos secos? What’s the difference between fruta and frutos?

• Fruta is a mass noun: fruit in general, an unspecified amount.
• Frutos is the plural of fruto, meaning “individual fruits / fruit items”, but in everyday use in Portugal, frutos secos is a set phrase.

So:

• fruta = fresh fruit in general (apples, bananas, grapes, etc.), non‑specific
• frutos secos = literally “dried fruits”, but in practice in Portugal it normally covers nuts and similar snacks (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, etc.), sometimes also dried fruit like raisins

You would not normally say fruta seca to mean “nuts”; frutos secos is the idiomatic expression.

Does frutos secos mean dried fruit or nuts?

In Portugal, frutos secos usually means nuts and similar things you snack on:

• almonds
• walnuts
• hazelnuts
• cashews
• peanuts
• sometimes also raisins, dried apricots, etc.

So if you say:

• Gosto de frutos secos.
  People will typically think of nuts, not only dried apricots and raisins.

If you specifically need dried fruit (without nuts), you might say:

• fruta desidratada – dehydrated fruit
• fruta seca – can be understood as dried fruit, but much less common than frutos secos.

Why is there no article with fruta or frutos secos? Why not a fruta or os frutos secos?

Here fruta and frutos secos are used like indefinite or mass nouns, meaning “some fruit and (some) nuts”, not specific ones.

• Ponho fruta e frutos secos…
  = I put (some) fruit and (some) nuts…

If you say:

• Ponho a fruta e os frutos secos na minha lancheira…
  it sounds like you are talking about specific fruit and nuts already known in the context (for example, those fruits we talked about earlier).

For everyday routine descriptions, no article is more natural here.

Why is it na minha lancheira and not em a minha lancheira or para a minha lancheira?

Two things are happening:

1. Contraction of preposition + article

   • em + a → na
     So em a minha lancheira contracts to na minha lancheira.

2. Choice of preposition: em vs para

   • pôr em = to put in / on somewhere (location)
   • pôr para = to put for some purpose (less usual in this context)

You want: “I put fruit in my lunchbox”, i.e., location → em → na minha lancheira.
So na minha lancheira literally is “in my lunchbox”.

Why is it minha lancheira and not meu lancheira?

In Portuguese, possessive adjectives (meu, minha, teu, tua, etc.) agree in gender and number with the noun they modify, not with the owner.

• lancheira is a feminine singular noun (like a lancheira).
  Therefore you must use the feminine singular possessive:

  • a minha lancheira – my lunchbox

If it were a masculine noun, you would use meu:

• o meu livro – my book
• a minha mochila – my backpack
• a minha lancheira – my lunchbox

What exactly does lancheira mean? Is it the same as “lunchbox”?

Yes, lancheira is the normal word for a lunchbox / lunch bag, especially for children but also for adults.

• lanche = snack (often the mid‑morning or mid‑afternoon snack)
• lancheira = the container or bag used to take that snack (and sometimes lunch) from home

Other words you might hear:

• marmita – a box for a home‑cooked meal taken to work (very common in Brazil, also used in Portugal)
• caixa da marmita / caixa de almoço – box for your lunch

For a school kid, lancheira is the natural word for “lunchbox” in European Portuguese.

Why is it antes de sair de casa and not antes sair de casa?

After antes, when followed by a verb in the infinitive, you must use the preposition de:

• antes de + infinitive

So:

• antes de sair de casa – before leaving home
• antes de comer – before eating
• antes de estudar – before studying

Antes sair is incorrect in this structure.
The little word de belongs there: antes de + [infinitive].

Who is the subject of sair in antes de sair de casa? Why is there no eu?

In Portuguese, you often use an infinitive without an explicit subject when it’s clear from context who is doing the action.

• Ponho fruta… antes de sair de casa.

The subject of ponho is eu (I), and sair is logically done by the same person.
So antes de sair de casa is understood as:

• antes de eu sair de casa – before I leave home

But it's very natural to leave out eu in this kind of structure when the subject doesn’t change.
If the subject were different, you’d normally need to show it:

• Ponho fruta na tua lancheira antes de tu saíres de casa.
  I put fruit in your lunchbox before you leave home.

Why is it de casa and not da casa?

• de casa, without article, usually means “from home” in a general sense.

  • sair de casa = to leave home (one’s residence)

• da casa = de + a casa (from the house / from that specific house).
  This refers to a specific house as a physical building.

So:

• antes de sair de casa – before leaving home (my place, where I live)
• antes de sair da casa – before leaving the house (that particular house we’re talking about)

In daily routine expressions, sair de casa is the normal form.

Could I say coloco or meto instead of ponho? Are there differences?

Yes, there are alternatives, each with its nuance:

• ponho – neutral, very common
• coloco – more formal / careful, often used in instructions or technical contexts
  
  • Coloco fruta e frutos secos na minha lancheira… is correct, but sounds a bit less casual.
• meto – common in speech, especially in Portugal, but can sound more colloquial, and sometimes slightly rough depending on context.

In a neutral everyday sentence about your routine, ponho is the safest, most natural choice.

Is the word order “fruta e frutos secos” important? Could I say “frutos secos e fruta” instead?

You can say both:

• Ponho fruta e frutos secos…
• Ponho frutos secos e fruta…

Both are grammatically correct.
The difference is just slight emphasis or what comes to your mind first.
Many speakers tend to say fruta e frutos secos because:

• the more general / healthier item (fruta) comes first
• it “flows” naturally in that fixed phrase

But changing the order does not change the meaning.