Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O amigo da Ana achou o caril demasiado picante, mas eu adorei. - Ana’s friend found the curry too spicy, but I loved it.

This is normal and sounds natural in Portugal.
In English we don’t say the Ana, but in Portuguese (especially in Portugal) it’s part of everyday speech, especially with familiar people’s names.

Could you also say o amigo de Ana instead of o amigo da Ana?

You could say o amigo de Ana, but in European Portuguese it sounds less natural in everyday speech.

o amigo da Ana – most natural in Portugal.
o amigo de Ana – possible, but may sound:
- more formal/literary, or
- slightly foreign / less idiomatic in many contexts.

So if you want to sound like people in Portugal, prefer da Ana.

What tense and person is achou, and what’s the infinitive of the verb?

Infinitive: achar
Tense: pretérito perfeito (simple past, completed action)
Person: 3rd person singular (he/she/it, or o amigo da Ana)

Roughly equivalent here to “(he) found / thought”.

Mini conjugation (European Portuguese):

eu achei – I thought / found
tu achaste – you (singular, informal) thought / found
ele / ela / você achou – he / she / you (formal) thought / found
nós achámos – we thought / found
eles / elas / vocês acharam – they / you all thought / found

Why use achar here instead of pensar?

In European Portuguese:

achar can mean “to think / to feel / to find something to be X”, especially in spoken language:
- Achei o filme interessante. – I found the film interesting / I thought the film was interesting.
pensar focuses more on the act of thinking / reasoning:
- Penso que ele tem razão. – I think he’s right.

In the sentence:

O amigo da Ana achou o caril demasiado picante
≈ Ana’s friend found the curry too spicy / thought the curry was too spicy.

This evaluation of the curry’s quality (too spicy) is very naturally expressed with achar.

Why is it o caril and not just caril?

Portuguese normally uses a definite article with specific countable nouns:

o caril – the curry (a specific curry we both know about, e.g. the one we just ate)
caril without an article is more generic:
- Gosto de caril. – I like curry (in general).

In the sentence, they are talking about one particular dish, so o caril (the curry) is expected.

What does caril mean, and is it the same as English curry?

Yes, caril is the usual European Portuguese word for curry (the dish or the sauce/spice mix).

It’s masculine: o caril
In Portugal, caril is more common than curry in everyday language, though you may also see curry on menus.

Example:

caril de frango – chicken curry
caril de camarão – prawn/shrimp curry

What’s the difference between demasiado and muito in demasiado picante?

demasiado = too (more than is good/desired)
- demasiado picante – too spicy (negative / excessive)
muito = very / a lot
- muito picante – very spicy (strong, but not necessarily “too much”)

So:

O caril está muito picante. – The curry is very spicy.
O caril está demasiado picante. – The curry is too spicy (for me).

Where does demasiado go in relation to the adjective, and can you use something else instead?

In this structure, demasiado comes before the adjective:

demasiado picante – too spicy
demasiado caro – too expensive
demasiado tarde – too late

You can also use (…) demais after the adjective with a similar meaning:

picante demais
caro demais

So you could also say:

O amigo da Ana achou o caril picante demais. – Ana’s friend found the curry too spicy.

What nuance does picante have? Is it always “spicy”?

Picante usually means spicy / hot, especially in relation to food with chilli / pepper heat.

Examples:

O molho está picante. – The sauce is spicy.
Gosto de comida pouco picante. – I like mildly spicy food.

It can also more generally mean pungent / sharp, but in food contexts it’s normally understood as “spicy-hot”.

Why is it mas eu adorei and not just mas adorei?

Both are possible:

mas eu adorei – but I loved it (emphasis on I)
mas adorei – but I loved it (neutral, less contrastive)

Using eu here highlights the contrast:

Ana’s friend: too spicy
I, on the other hand: loved it

In speech, you’d often hear mas eu adorei because the speaker wants to stress that their opinion is very different.

Why is there no object after adorei? What did the speaker “love”?

The object is understood from the context: o caril (the curry).

Portuguese often omits the object when it’s obvious:

O amigo da Ana achou o caril demasiado picante, mas eu adorei.
Literally: Ana’s friend found the curry too spicy, but I loved (it).

If you really want to specify it, you could say:

…, mas eu adorei o caril. – but I loved the curry.

Both are correct; the shorter version is natural because the curry has already been mentioned.

How would you say explicitly “but I loved it” with a pronoun in European Portuguese?

You would use the clitic pronoun -o (standing for “it” = o caril, masculine singular):

…, mas eu adorei-o.

Notes for European Portuguese:

The pronoun attaches to the verb with a hyphen (adorei-o) because it is in an affirmative clause not starting with a negative word.
Eu o adorei (with the pronoun before the verb) is typical of Brazilian Portuguese, not European.

In everyday speech in Portugal, however, people often just say:

…, mas eu adorei. – and let context supply the “it”.

Can the word order in the whole sentence change, or is it fixed?

The basic order subject – verb – object – complement is:

O amigo da Ana / achou / o caril / demasiado picante,
mas eu / adorei.

You can reorder parts for emphasis or style, for example:

Eu adorei, mas o amigo da Ana achou o caril demasiado picante.
O caril, o amigo da Ana achou-o demasiado picante, mas eu adorei. (more marked, more “spoken-story” style)

But the original sentence is the most neutral and natural word order.