Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O professor vai revisar o relatório antes do exame. - The teacher is going to revise the report before the exam.

In everyday Portuguese, ir (conjugated) + infinitive is the most common way to talk about the future, especially when it’s relatively near or planned, just like English be going to.

Why does the sentence use vai revisar instead of revisará? Are both correct?

Both are grammatically correct:

O professor vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
→ Most natural in speech; neutral, common in both spoken and written Portuguese.
O professor revisará o relatório antes do exame.
→ More formal/literary; sounds written, not very conversational.

In modern European Portuguese, everyday future is usually formed with ir + infinitive (vai revisar), while the “pure” future tense (revisará) is more formal or stylistic, often in official documents, journalism, or literature.

Why is there an O before professor? In English we’d just say “teacher”, not “the teacher”.

In Portuguese, definite articles are used more often than in English.

O professor here means the teacher / the professor (a specific one known from context).
Saying just Professor vai revisar… is not natural in this neutral statement.

Compare:

O professor chegou. → The teacher arrived. (a specific one)
Professores ganham pouco. → Teachers earn little. (teachers in general, no article)

So in your sentence we talk about a particular teacher, so Portuguese uses o. English can drop the in similar contexts, but Portuguese normally cannot.

What’s the difference between professor and professora?

They mark gender:

o professor – male teacher/professor
a professora – female teacher/professor

In European Portuguese, professor/a is used for teachers at all levels (primary school to university).

To adapt the sentence:

A professora vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
→ The (female) teacher is going to review the report before the exam.

The verb vai stays the same; only the article and noun change.

Does revisar mean “to study” for an exam, like British English to revise?

No, and this is an important false friend.

In European Portuguese:

revisar mainly means to review / revise / check / correct a text, document, car, machine, etc.
- revisar o relatório → to check/correct the report
- revisão do carro → car service/check-up

To mean study for an exam, you’d normally use:

estudar para o exame – to study for the exam
rever a matéria (para o exame) – to go over the material (for the exam)

So O professor vai revisar o relatório is about checking/correcting a report, not studying for the exam.

I often see rever as well. Is there a difference between revisar and rever?

Both can overlap in meaning (to review), but there are tendencies:

rever – very common everyday verb for to look at again, to go over, to review:
- rever o relatório – go over / look over the report
- rever a matéria – review the material (for an exam)
revisar – more associated with systematic checking and correcting, often in technical or editorial contexts:
- revisar um texto – edit/proofread a text
- revisão do carro – car servicing/check

In your sentence, vai revisar o relatório suggests checking/correcting it carefully, which fits the context before an exam. Vai rever o relatório would also be fine, with slightly more emphasis on going over it again rather than correcting it.

Why is it o relatório and not um relatório? What’s the difference?

The article changes whether the noun is definite (known/specific) or indefinite (unspecified):

o relatório – the report (a particular, identified one)
um relatório – a report (any report, not previously specified)

Your sentence:

O professor vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
→ We already know which report we’re talking about (for example, the one the student handed in).

If you said:

O professor vai revisar um relatório antes do exame.
→ The teacher will review some report (not specified which); it sounds more vague or out of context.

What is do in antes do exame? Why not just antes de o exame?

Do is a contraction:

de + o = do

In Portuguese, many preposition + article combinations contract:

de + o → do (before masculine singular)
de + a → da
de + os → dos
de + as → das

The base structure is antes de + noun:

antes de o exame
But in correct Portuguese this must contract:
antes do exame

So the rule is: when de is directly followed by o / a / os / as, you normally must use do / da / dos / das.

When do I use antes de and when antes que?

They introduce different kinds of complements:

antes de
- noun or infinitive:
- antes do exame – before the exam (noun)
- antes de revisar o relatório – before reviewing the report (infinitive)
antes que
- clause (with subjunctive):
- antes que o exame comece – before the exam begins
- antes que ele chegue – before he arrives

In your sentence:

We have a noun (o exame), so antes de → antes do exame is correct.

With a clause, you’d say:

O professor vai revisar o relatório antes que o exame comece.
→ The teacher is going to review the report before the exam begins.

How do I know that relatório and exame are masculine? Is there a rule?

Gender is mostly lexical in Portuguese, though there are patterns.

In your sentence:

o relatório – masculine (ends in -o, which is often masculine)
o exame – masculine (no clear ending rule; must be memorised)

Common tendencies (not 100% rules):

Nouns ending in -o are often masculine: o relatório, o livro, o carro
Nouns ending in -a are often feminine: a mesa, a casa, a cadeira

But there are many exceptions:

o dia (masculine despite -a)
a foto (feminine, short for a fotografia)
o exame (masculine; no clear morphological clue)

So for many nouns (like exame), you just have to learn them with their article: o exame, o relatório.

Can I move antes do exame to another position in the sentence?

Yes, Portuguese word order is flexible for adverbial phrases like this. All of these are correct:

O professor vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
Antes do exame, o professor vai revisar o relatório.
O professor, antes do exame, vai revisar o relatório.

The first is the most neutral and common. Moving antes do exame to the front can emphasise the time frame slightly: Before the exam, the teacher is going to review the report.

How would the sentence change for a female teacher or for plural teachers?

You change articles and noun according to gender and number; the verb form may also change.

Female teacher (singular):
- A professora vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
- Only o professor → a professora changes. Vai stays the same (3rd person singular).
Multiple teachers (at least one male, or gender mixed):
- Os professores vão revisar o relatório antes do exame.
- o professor → os professores (article and noun plural)
- vai → vão (3rd person plural of ir)
Multiple female teachers only:
- As professoras vão revisar o relatório antes do exame.

So you adjust:

article: o/a → os/as
noun: professor → professores, professora → professoras
verb ir: vai → vão.

How is this sentence pronounced in European Portuguese, and are there any tricky sounds for English speakers?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (stress in CAPS):

O professor vai revisar o relatório antes do exame.
→ [u prufəˈsoɾ vaj ʁəviˈzaɾ u ʁəlɐˈtɔɾju ˈɐ̃tʃɨʒ du iˈzɐm(ɨ)]

Tricky points for English speakers:

O at the start: often like a close [u], similar to oo in food but shorter.
professor: final -r is soft, often almost not pronounced or very light.
revisar, relatório: r at the beginning or after a consonant is a guttural sound (back of the throat), usually [ʁ].
antes: the an is nasal [ɐ̃], and -tes sounds like -tchish [tʃɨʒ] in many European accents.
exame: e- is like i- in exam (English), and final -e is a reduced vowel [ɨ], not fully like English eh.

Listening to native European Portuguese audio for similar sentences will help you tune in to the reduction of unstressed vowels and the guttural r.