Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Do castelo, telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista. - From the castle, we phoned our parents to describe the view to them.

Do castelo, telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista.

From the castle, we phoned our parents to describe the view to them.

Breakdown of Do castelo, telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista.

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Questions & Answers about Do castelo, telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista.

In Do castelo, what does do mean exactly, and how is it different from de or no?

Do is the contraction of de + o and literally means from the (masculine singular).

de on its own = from / of
o castelo = the castle
de + o castelo → do castelo = from the castle

So Do castelo = From the castle (talking about origin/location you’re coming from or looking from).

By contrast:

no castelo = em + o castelo = in/on/at the castle
de castelo without the article is possible in some set expressions but here you would normally use the article, so do castelo is the natural choice.

Why is there a comma after Do castelo?

The comma marks Do castelo as an introductory phrase that sets the scene.

Portuguese often separates a fronted phrase of time, place, or context with a comma:

Do castelo, telefonámos… = From the castle, we phoned…
À noite, estudamos. = At night, we study.

You could also say Telefonámos aos nossos pais do castelo…, without a comma at the beginning, but starting with Do castelo and separating it by a comma highlights the location as background information.

What tense and person is telefonámos, and what is the accent for?

Telefonámos is 1st person plural, simple past (pretérito perfeito) of telefonar in European Portuguese: we phoned / we called.

nós telefonámos = we phoned
The accent á marks the stressed syllable and distinguishes it from the present tense:
- telefonámos (past) → stress on ná
- telefonamos (present) → stress on fa

In spelling, European Portuguese keeps this accent to make the difference clear; in Brazilian usage, you will often see telefonamos for both, with the distinction made only by context and pronunciation.

Why is it telefonámos aos nossos pais and not something like telefonámos para os nossos pais?

In European Portuguese, the usual pattern is:

telefonar a alguém = to phone / call someone

So:

telefonámos aos nossos pais = we phoned our parents
(a + os → aos)

You can see telefonar para in some dialects or informally, especially in Brazil, usually with places or numbers (telefonar para casa, para o trabalho), but the standard EP construction with a person is telefonar a + indirect object.

Why is it aos nossos pais and not a nossos pais or os nossos pais?

The base noun phrase is os nossos pais = our parents.

When you add the preposition a, the article os merges with it:

a + os nossos pais → aos nossos pais

So aos already includes the definite article os. You must not say aos os nossos pais; that would be doubling the article.

a nossos pais (without article) sounds odd and unidiomatic in European Portuguese here.
os nossos pais is fine on its own, but with telefonar you need the preposition a: telefonar aos nossos pais.

What does lhes mean here, and where should it go in the sentence?

Lhes is an indirect object pronoun meaning to them (3rd person plural, masculine or feminine).

In this sentence it refers back to aos nossos pais:

para lhes descrever a vista = in order to describe the view to them

Position:

In European Portuguese, the default in this structure is before the infinitive:
- para lhes descrever a vista
More formal/literary Portuguese can also put it after the infinitive with a hyphen:
- para descrever-lhes a vista

For a learner, it’s safest and most natural in EP to use para lhes descrever….

Are aos nossos pais and lhes redundant, or do they do different jobs?

They are not redundant; they belong to different verbs:

telefonámos aos nossos pais → aos nossos pais is the indirect object of telefonámos (whom we phoned).
para lhes descrever a vista → lhes is the indirect object of descrever (to whom we described the view).

So you could rephrase the sentence more literally as:

From the castle, we phoned our parents in order to describe the view to them.

If you removed lhes, it would sound incomplete for descrever:

para descrever a vista (to describe the view) – but to whom?
Adding lhes or aos nossos pais with descrever makes that clear.

Could I say para descrever a vista aos nossos pais instead of para lhes descrever a vista?

Yes, that is perfectly correct:

para descrever a vista aos nossos pais
para lhes descrever a vista

Both mean in order to describe the view to our parents.

Subtle differences:

para lhes descrever a vista is a bit more compact and typical when the people have already been mentioned (aos nossos pais just before).
para descrever a vista aos nossos pais repeats the full noun phrase and can sound slightly more explicit or emphatic.

In everyday European Portuguese, both options are natural.

What is the role of para here? Could we also use para que?

Here para introduces a purpose expressed with an infinitive:

para lhes descrever a vista = (in order) to describe the view to them

Structure: [main clause] + para + infinitive is very common when the subject of both actions is the same (we phoned / we describe).

You could also use para que + subjunctive:

… telefonámos aos nossos pais para que lhes descrevêssemos a vista.

That sounds more formal and heavier; in modern spoken EP, para + infinitive is strongly preferred in this type of sentence when the subject is the same.

Why is vista feminine, and why do we say a vista with the article?

Vista is a feminine noun in Portuguese; its grammatical gender is arbitrary and must be learned with the word:

a vista = the view / the sight (feminine)

In this context, descrever a vista = to describe the view. Using the definite article a is normal when you are talking about a specific, known view (the one from the castle).

Without the article (descrever vista) it would sound unnatural here; most countable nouns take an article in this kind of sentence in Portuguese.

Can we change the word order, for example Telefonámos aos nossos pais do castelo… or …para lhes descrever a vista do castelo?

Yes, you have some flexibility, with slight changes in focus:

Do castelo, telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista.
– Emphasises the setting first: From the castle,…
Telefonámos aos nossos pais do castelo para lhes descrever a vista.
– More neutral order; do castelo directly modifies telefonámos (we phoned from the castle).
Telefonámos aos nossos pais para lhes descrever a vista do castelo.
– Now do castelo clearly modifies vista (the view from the castle), rather than the act of phoning.

All are grammatical; you just shift what do castelo is most closely associated with (the phoning vs. the view).

Is there a difference between telefonar and ligar in Portugal?

Both are used, but there is a nuance:

telefonar (a alguém) is slightly more formal/standard:
- Telefonámos aos nossos pais.
ligar (a alguém) is very common in everyday speech:
- Ligámos aos nossos pais.

In Portugal, ligar is probably what you’ll hear most in casual conversation, but telefonar is fully natural and slightly more “neutral” or careful. Grammatically, they behave the same way here: ligar a alguém, telefonar a alguém.

How do you pronounce lhes, and what does the accent in telefonámos do to the pronunciation?

Lhes:

The lh sound is like the “lli” in English “million” (a “palatal L”).
Rough approximation: [lye-sh] (with a soft final sh sound from s before a consonant or pause in European Portuguese).

Telefonámos:

The accent on á makes that syllable the strongest: te-le-fo-NÁ-mos.
In the present tense telefonamos, the stress is te-le-FO-na-mos. So the accent not only signals past tense in writing but also shifts the stress pattern in speech.