Ontem tive sorte no exame.

Yesterday I was lucky in the exam.

Breakdown of Ontem tive sorte no exame.

• em: in
• o exame: the exam
• ontem: yesterday
• ter sorte: to be lucky

Questions & Answers about Ontem tive sorte no exame.

Why does Portuguese say tive sorte (literally had luck) instead of something like fui sortudo (was lucky)?

In Portuguese, the normal idiomatic way to say to be lucky is ter sorte (to have luck), not ser sortudo.

• Tive sorte = I was lucky / I got lucky.
• Fui sortudo is grammatically possible but sounds unusual or a bit marked in most contexts. It’s used much less, and often with a slightly different nuance (more like I’m a lucky guy/person as a characteristic, not just on one occasion).

So Ontem tive sorte no exame is the most natural, everyday way to say Yesterday I was lucky in the exam.

Why is there no eu? Could I say Eu ontem tive sorte no exame?

Portuguese (especially European Portuguese) is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person.

• Tive sorte clearly means I had luck because tive is the eu (I) form of ter in the simple past.
• Adding eu is not wrong, but it is usually only done for emphasis or contrast:
  Eu ontem tive sorte no exame, mas o meu amigo não.
  (I was lucky in the exam yesterday, but my friend wasn’t.)

So the most natural version is without eu: Ontem tive sorte no exame.

Why is the tense tive (simple past) and not something like tinha or tenho tido?

Tive is the pretérito perfeito (simple past), used for completed events at a specific time.

• Ontem tive sorte = I was lucky yesterday (on that specific occasion).
• Tinha sorte (imperfect) would mean I used to be lucky / I was generally lucky, describing a repeated or ongoing situation in the past, not a single exam.
• Tenho tido sorte (present perfect) is I’ve been having luck / I’ve been lucky, describing a recent period, not one finished event.

Because we’re talking about one particular exam, on one particular day (ontem), tive is the correct and natural choice.

Can ontem go in another position, like Tive sorte no exame ontem?

Yes. Ontem is quite flexible in position:

• Ontem tive sorte no exame.
• Tive sorte no exame ontem.
• Ontem, no exame, tive sorte.

All are grammatically correct.
Putting ontem at the beginning (Ontem tive…) is very common and slightly emphasizes the time. Putting it at the end (…no exame ontem) sounds a bit more neutral or conversational in many contexts.

What exactly is no in no exame? Why not em o exame?

No is the contraction of the preposition em (in / on / at) + the masculine singular article o (the):

• em + o exame → no exame = in the exam.

In standard Portuguese, these contractions are mandatory:

• no = em + o
• na = em + a
• nos = em + os
• nas = em + as

So em o exame is not used in normal speech or writing; you must say no exame.

Could I use a different preposition, like ao exame or no teste? Do they mean the same thing?

• No exame literally means in the exam and is the usual way to talk about doing well or badly on an exam.
• Ao exame (a + o exame) is rarer in this context and would usually appear in more formal or specific constructions (e.g. ir ao exame = to go to the exam).
• No teste is fine and means in the test; exame is usually more serious or final, teste can be smaller or more routine, but usage overlaps.

So for the original meaning, no exame is the most typical choice.

Why is sorte feminine, and why don’t I see any agreement in this sentence?

Sorte is a feminine noun (a sorte = luck). Noun gender in Portuguese is mostly arbitrary and must be learned word by word.

In Ontem tive sorte no exame, you don’t see the feminine marking because:

• There is no article before sorte (no a or uma).
• There is no adjective describing sorte here.

If you add them, the femininity shows:

• Tive muita sorte. (I was very lucky.)
• Tive uma sorte incrível. (I had incredible luck.)

Here muita and uma agree with the feminine noun sorte.

Could I just say Ontem tive sorte and leave out no exame?

Yes, that is perfectly grammatical:

• Ontem tive sorte. = Yesterday I was lucky.

Without no exame, the sentence is more general; it doesn’t say where or in what you were lucky.
Adding no exame specifies the context: in the exam.

Is there another natural way in European Portuguese to say I was lucky in the exam yesterday?

Yes, several alternatives are common in European Portuguese, for example:

• Ontem o exame correu‑me bem.
  (Literally: Yesterday the exam went well for me.)
• Ontem safá‑mo‑nos bem no exame. (if speaking for we)
  (Yesterday we did well in the exam.)
• Ontem o exame não me correu nada mal.
  (Yesterday the exam didn’t go badly for me at all. – implies some luck/success.)

But Ontem tive sorte no exame is short, neutral, and very clear.

Is this sentence specifically European Portuguese, or would Brazilians say it the same way?

The sentence Ontem tive sorte no exame is fine in both European and Brazilian Portuguese in terms of grammar and vocabulary.

The main differences are:

• Pronunciation (especially vowels and the final -e in tive, and the nasal syllable in ontem).
• In Brazil, people might more often say prova instead of exame in many school contexts:
  Ontem tive sorte na prova.

So structurally it works in both varieties, but in a classroom context in Brazil, prova would probably sound more natural.

How is Ontem tive sorte no exame pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (using a rough English-friendly guide):

• Ontem ≈ ON-teng (final -m makes the e nasal, not a full m sound).
• tive ≈ TEE-v(ɨ) – the final e is a very short, almost neutral vowel, sometimes hardly audible.
• sorte ≈ SOR-t(ɨ) – or like in British sort, and the final e is again a very reduced sound.
• no ≈ noo (short, not as long as in English no).
• exame ≈ e-ZAH-m(ɨ) (stress on ZA, final e very light).

Spoken quickly, it flows something like: ON‑teng TEE‑vɨ SOR‑tɨ nu e‑ZAH‑mɨ.

Why is tive used and not tinha if in English we still say was lucky?

English was can correspond to different Portuguese past tenses depending on meaning:

• Ontem tive sorte. = Yesterday I was lucky (on that specific occasion). → completed event → pretérito perfeito (tive).
• Quando era criança, tinha sorte nos jogos. = When I was a child, I was lucky in games. → repeated/general habit → imperfeito (tinha).

So even though English uses was in both sentences, Portuguese chooses tive or tinha depending on whether the luck was a one-off event or a habitual/ongoing situation. Here it’s a one-off exam, so tive is correct.