Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O Pedro não ignora o perigo quando atravessa a rua principal. - Pedro does not ignore the danger when he crosses the main street.

You’ll hear both with and without the article, but in many regions and registers of European Portuguese, using o / a with names is the default in speech. In more formal writing you might see it less.

Can I omit the O and just say Pedro não ignora o perigo…? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Pedro não ignora o perigo quando atravessa a rua principal.

The basic meaning is the same. The difference is mostly stylistic and regional:

With article (O Pedro): very common in everyday European Portuguese; sounds natural, colloquial, and neutral.
Without article (Pedro): a bit more formal or “written”, or used in certain dialects/regions that prefer it.

For learning purposes, it’s good to get used to hearing and using O / A + name in European Portuguese.

Where does não go in a negative sentence? Why is it não ignora and not something like ignora não?

In Portuguese, não normally comes immediately before the conjugated verb:

O Pedro não ignora o perigo. – Pedro does not ignore the danger.
Eu não sei. – I don’t know.

You do not put não after the main verb the way you might in some other languages:

❌ O Pedro ignora não o perigo. (wrong)
✅ O Pedro não ignora o perigo.

If there is a compound verb (e.g. an auxiliary + main verb), não comes before the first (conjugated) verb:

O Pedro não vai atravessar a rua. – Pedro is not going to cross the street.

What exactly does ignorar mean here? Does it mean “not know about” or “deliberately ignore”?

Ignorar has two main meanings in Portuguese:

Not know, be unaware of
- Eu ignoro o motivo. – I don’t know the reason.
Deliberately ignore, pay no attention to
- Ele ignora os conselhos. – He ignores the advice.

In your sentence, não ignora o perigo means:

He is aware of the danger and does not choose to ignore it.

So it mixes both ideas: he knows the danger exists and he doesn’t pretend it doesn’t.

Why do we say o perigo and not just perigo without the article?

Portuguese uses definite articles much more than English. Here:

o perigo literally = the danger.

In English, we sometimes drop the and just say danger, but in Portuguese the article is very common in this type of sentence:

Ignora o perigo. – He ignores (the) danger.
Tem medo do escuro. – He is afraid of the dark.

You could say ignora perigo in some stylised, headline-like, or poetic contexts, but in normal speech and writing o perigo is the natural choice.

Why is it quando atravessa a rua principal and not quando ele atravessa…?

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, etc.) because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

(Ele) atravessa → the ending -a in atravessa already tells you it’s ele / ela / você / o Pedro.

So both are grammatically correct:

O Pedro não ignora o perigo quando atravessa a rua principal.
O Pedro não ignora o perigo quando ele atravessa a rua principal.

The version without ele is more natural and less repetitive, because O Pedro is already the subject of the sentence.

Why is the verb atravessa in the simple present? In English we might say “when he is crossing…”.

Portuguese uses the simple present much more often than English to talk about:

habits or repeated actions
general truths
typical behaviour

Here, quando atravessa a rua principal means:

whenever / when(ever) he crosses the main street (habitual)

You could say quando está a atravessar a rua principal, but:

quando atravessa = more neutral, general, simple
quando está a atravessar = focuses more on the ongoing process at that moment

For a general, repeated situation, the simple present atravessa is the most natural.

Can I say quando está a atravessar a rua principal instead of quando atravessa? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

O Pedro não ignora o perigo quando está a atravessar a rua principal.

Differences:

quando atravessa
- more general/habitual: when he crosses the main street (as a rule)
- shorter, very natural in Portuguese for routine situations.
quando está a atravessar
- continuous aspect: when he is in the middle of crossing the main street
- emphasises the ongoing action at that moment.

Both are correct; in most contexts, natives would pick the shorter quando atravessa.

Why is there no preposition before a rua principal? In English we “cross the street,” but we also say “walk along the street.”

The verb atravessar already has the idea of “cross (from one side to the other)” built in, and it normally takes a direct object with no extra preposition:

atravessar a rua – to cross the street
atravessar o rio – to cross the river
atravessar a estrada – to cross the road

So:

atravessa a rua principal = he crosses the main street.

If you wanted “walk along / through the main street”, you’d use a different verb or add a preposition, e.g.:

andar pela rua principal – to walk along the main street
passar pela rua principal – to go through / via the main street

Why is it a rua but o perigo? How do I know which nouns are masculine or feminine?

In Portuguese, each noun has grammatical gender:

perigo is masculine → o perigo
rua is feminine → a rua

There is no logical reason here; it’s just part of each word’s dictionary form, like in many other Romance languages.

Some weak patterns (with many exceptions):

many nouns ending in -o are masculine: o carro, o livro, o perigo
many nouns ending in -a are feminine: a rua, a casa, a janela

But you must learn the gender with the noun. A good habit is to always learn new words together with o / a, for example:

o perigo – danger
a rua – street

Why is the adjective principal after the noun in a rua principal? Could I say a principal rua?

The normal word order in Portuguese is:

noun + adjective
- a rua principal – the main street
- o carro vermelho – the red car

So a rua principal is the standard, neutral way to say the main street.

You can sometimes put principal before the noun (a principal rua), but:

it’s much less common,
it sounds more formal, literary, or stylistically marked,
it can subtly change focus or feel slightly unusual in everyday speech.

In everyday European Portuguese, you should say a rua principal.

What does principal mean here exactly? Does it always mean “main”?

In this context, principal means main / most important:

a rua principal – the main street
a razão principal – the main reason

Other common uses:

o papel principal – the main role (in a film/play)
a ideia principal – the main idea

It can also be a noun meaning “principal / headteacher” in school contexts:

o principal da escola – the school principal (though diretor / diretora is more common in Portugal).

In your sentence, it clearly means the main street.

How do you pronounce não ignora o perigo? Especially the ão and the ign- part.

Key points:

não
- ão is a nasal sound roughly like “own” in English said through the nose, but shorter and tenser.
- The m or n that nasalises the vowel is usually not fully pronounced as a consonant; it just makes the vowel nasal.
ignora
- Stressed on -no-: i-gNO-ra
- The gn is pronounced like “ny” in canyon (similar to Italian gn or Spanish ñ), especially in slower or careful speech: /iˈɲɔɾɐ/ in many accents.
- In fast speech some speakers make it closer to a palatal /ɲ/ or even simplify it, but aiming for “i-nyo-ra” is a good learner target.
o perigo
- o before consonant is usually like English “oo” in food, but shorter.
- perigo has the stress on -ri-: pe-RI-go.

Putting it together (simplified guide):

O Pedro não ignora o perigo ≈ oo PE-dru now ee-NYO-ra oo pe-REE-go (with now nasalised).