Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): No sábado, mostrei‑lhe o castelo antigo que fica no centro da cidade. - On Saturday, I showed her the old castle that is in the city centre.

No sábado literally = on the Saturday, but in English we just say on Saturday.
In Portuguese, days of the week usually take a definite article when you specify a particular day:
- na segunda‑feira, no domingo, etc.

You could hear em sábado in some very general, abstract contexts (e.g. “I don’t work on Saturdays” → Em sábado não trabalho), but when referring to a specific past day (“On Saturday, I showed him…”), No sábado is the natural form.

Why does the sentence start with No sábado? Could it go later in the sentence?

Time expressions often go at the beginning in Portuguese (and in English):

No sábado, mostrei‑lhe o castelo antigo… = On Saturday, I showed him…

You can also place it later, and it’s still correct:

Mostrei‑lhe o castelo antigo no sábado.

The meaning is the same; starting with No sábado just sets the time frame first, which is very natural in narrative.

Why isn’t eu written before mostrei‑lhe?

Portuguese usually omits subject pronouns when the verb form already shows who the subject is.

mostrei is 1st person singular (I showed), so eu is understood.
No sábado, mostrei‑lhe… = On Saturday, I showed him/her…

You can say Eu mostrei‑lhe o castelo antigo…, but it usually adds emphasis (I showed him/her, as opposed to someone else). In a neutral sentence, eu is often dropped.

What tense is mostrei, and why is it used here?

mostrei is the pretérito perfeito (simple past) of mostrar (to show), 1st person singular.

(eu) mostrei = I showed (one completed action in the past).

It’s the natural choice for a single, finished action on a specific day in the past (“On Saturday, I showed…”).

Contrast:

(eu) mostrava → I was showing / I used to show (imperfect, ongoing or habitual past).
- No sábado, mostrava‑lhe o castelo… would sound like you’re describing what you were in the middle of doing that Saturday, or a repeated habit on Saturdays, depending on context.

What exactly does lhe mean here, and why use lhe instead of o or a?

lhe is an indirect object pronoun meaning to him / to her / to you (formal).

mostrei‑lhe o castelo → I showed him/her (to‑him/to‑her) the castle.

In Portuguese, mostrar works like “to show something to someone”:

mostrar algo a alguém → mostrei o castelo a ele / a ela
Replace a ele / a ela with lhe → mostrei‑lhe o castelo.

By contrast:

o, a, os, as are direct object pronouns: him, her, it, them (as objects without an extra “to”).
- Mostrei‑o → I showed it (the castle).
- Mostrei‑o ao João → I showed it to João.

Here we’re focusing on the person to whom you showed the castle, so lhe (indirect object) is correct.

Why is lhe attached to the verb as mostrei‑lhe instead of written before the verb?

In European Portuguese, in affirmative main clauses with no special trigger (like a negation, conjunction, etc.), unstressed object pronouns usually go after the verb, joined by a hyphen. This is called ênclise:

Mostrei‑lhe o castelo. (EP normal)

In Brazilian Portuguese, people much more often use proclise, putting the pronoun before the verb:

Eu lhe mostrei o castelo. (BP usual)

In European Portuguese, Lhe mostrei o castelo is possible but marked and sounds formal/literary. The neutral choice is Mostrei‑lhe.

Why is there a hyphen in mostrei‑lhe?

When unstressed pronouns (me, te, se, lhe, nos, vos, o, a, os, as, etc.) are attached after the verb in Portuguese, they are joined with a hyphen:

mostrei‑lhe, disse‑me, contar‑te‑ei

So the hyphen is just standard spelling for verb + clitic pronoun in this position.

Why is there an o before castelo antigo? Could I just say mostrei‑lhe castelo antigo?

No, you normally need the article here:

mostrei‑lhe o castelo antigo = I showed him/her the old castle.

Portuguese uses the definite article much more often than English. Singular countable nouns usually take an article (or some other determiner like meu, este, etc.) unless there’s a special reason not to.

Mostrei‑lhe castelo antigo sounds ungrammatical or at least very odd; it lacks the article where a specific castle is clearly meant.

Why is it castelo antigo and not antigo castelo? Does the position of antigo change the meaning?

Yes, adjective position can slightly change nuance:

castelo antigo (noun + adjective) → usually objective, literal:
- an old castle (it’s simply old in age).
antigo castelo (adjective + noun) → often has a more subjective or special sense:
- former / old (in the sense of “former”) castle, or a slightly more literary tone.

In everyday speech, when you just mean “an old castle” in the literal, physical sense, castelo antigo is the normal order.

What is the role of que in o castelo antigo que fica…?

Here que is a relative pronoun meaning that/which. It introduces a clause that describes o castelo antigo:

o castelo antigo que fica no centro da cidade
- the old castle that is located in the city centre

So que refers back to castelo and links it to the describing clause fica no centro da cidade.

Why use fica instead of está or é in que fica no centro da cidade?

Ficar is very commonly used to talk about location of places/buildings in Portuguese:

O castelo fica no centro da cidade.
A igreja fica perto do rio.

You can hear está for location (o castelo está no centro), but fica is more idiomatic when describing where something is situated on the map.

É is usually not used for simple physical location of buildings; it’s for identity or permanent characteristics:

O castelo é antigo. (The castle is old.)
Not: O castelo é no centro. (wrong in this sense).

What does no centro da cidade break down into?

There are two contractions here:

no = em + o
- no centro → in the centre
da = de + a
- da cidade → of the city

So:

no centro da cidade → in the centre of the city.

Could I say onde fica instead of que fica?

You could rephrase, but the structure changes a bit.

Original:
- o castelo antigo que fica no centro da cidade
- the old castle that is in the city centre

You might say in Portuguese, for example:

o castelo antigo, que fica no centro da cidade (same meaning but with commas, slightly more “extra information”).
Or a different sentence: Mostrei‑lhe onde fica o castelo antigo. → I showed him/her where the old castle is.

But onde fica doesn’t directly replace que fica in the same spot; it creates a different type of clause (a “where” clause instead of a relative clause that directly modifies castelo). The original sentence’s structure is most natural as …o castelo antigo que fica no centro da cidade.