Durante o confinamento, muitos vizinhos aplaudiram os bombeiros da janela.

During the lockdown, many neighbours applauded the firefighters from the window.

Breakdown of Durante o confinamento, muitos vizinhos aplaudiram os bombeiros da janela.

• de: from
• durante: during
• a janela: the window
• o vizinho: the neighbour
• muitos: many
• aplaudir: to applaud
• o confinamento: the lockdown
• o bombeiro: the firefighter

Questions & Answers about Durante o confinamento, muitos vizinhos aplaudiram os bombeiros da janela.

What exactly does confinamento mean here, and is it the normal word for “lockdown” in Portugal?

In this context, confinamento refers specifically to the COVID‑19 lockdown period.

In European Portuguese:

• confinamento = the period when people were required to stay at home / movement was heavily restricted.
• It’s the standard word people used in Portugal for the COVID lockdowns, often understood as the big, well‑known lockdown.

So Durante o confinamento is naturally understood as “During the lockdown (period)”, especially in recent historical context.

Why does the sentence say Durante o confinamento and not just Durante confinamento?

In Portuguese, abstract nouns and time periods very often take a definite article (o / a / os / as) when you’re talking about a specific, known instance.

• Durante o confinamento = During the (specific) lockdown (the one everyone knows about).
• Durante confinamento (without o) is grammatically possible but sounds odd and incomplete here; it would sound more like “during confinement in general” and not a specific event.

Using o here anchors it to that particular, shared experience.

Could you also say No confinamento instead of Durante o confinamento? What’s the difference?

No confinamento and Durante o confinamento can both be understood, but they aren’t quite the same:

• Durante o confinamento

  • Literally “during the lockdown”.
  • Focuses on the time span; it clearly marks it as a period.

• No confinamento = em + o confinamento

  • Literally “in the lockdown / in lockdown”.
  • Grammatically OK, but in this exact sentence it’s much less idiomatic; people very strongly prefer Durante o confinamento to talk about what happened over that whole period.

So here, Durante o confinamento is the most natural and standard choice.

Why is there no article before vizinhos? Why muitos vizinhos and not muitos os vizinhos?

Muitos vizinhos means “many neighbours” in a general, indefinite sense.

Structure:

• muitos = “many”
• vizinhos = “neighbours”

With quantifiers like muitos, poucos, alguns, you usually do not use a definite article when you’re talking about an indefinite group:

• muitos vizinhos = many neighbours (not specified which ones)
• alguns amigos = some friends

You would only add the article if it’s “many of the neighbours” (a subset of a known group):

• muitos dos vizinhos = many of the neighbours

So muitos vizinhos is correct and natural here.

What tense is aplaudiram, and why is it used instead of something like aplaudiam?

Aplaudiram is the pretérito perfeito simples, the simple past in Portuguese.

• Verb: aplaudir (to applaud)
• 3rd person plural (eles/elas/vocês): aplaudiram

You use pretérito perfeito for:

• Completed actions or events, seen as a whole.
• Things that happened in a finished time period.

Here it describes something that happened during that lockdown period and is viewed as a finished series of actions:

• muitos vizinhos aplaudiram = “many neighbours applauded (at that time, and that event is now over)”

Aplaudiam would be pretérito imperfeito, which suggests ongoing, habitual, or background action:

• Durante o confinamento, muitos vizinhos aplaudiam os bombeiros da janela.
  = “During the lockdown, many neighbours would applaud / used to applaud the firefighters from the window.”

Both can be correct, but:

• aplaudiram → focuses on the action as completed events.
• aplaudiam → emphasizes repeated or habitual nature.

How is aplaudiram formed and pronounced?

Formation (from aplaudir):

• eu aplaudi
• tu aplaudiste
• ele / ela / você aplaudiu
• nós aplaudimos
• vocês / eles / elas aplaudiram

Pronunciation (European Portuguese, approximate):

• aplaudiram → ah-plaw-DEE-ruhm
  
  • The stress is on -DI-: a-plau-DI-ram.
  • Final -am in European Portuguese is a nasal sound, not like “am” in English; it’s closer to a quick, nasalized “uh(n)”.

What does bombeiros mean exactly? Is it only “firefighters”?

Bombeiros is the plural of bombeiro.

In Portugal:

• os bombeiros primarily means “the firefighters”.
• However, in many parts of Portugal, firefighters also provide ambulance / emergency medical services, so bombeiros can be understood more broadly as “fire and rescue” personnel.

In this sentence, the natural translation is “firefighters”.

Why is it os bombeiros and not just bombeiros?

Portuguese uses the definite article (o / a / os / as) more frequently than English, especially with people or groups seen as a known category.

• os bombeiros = “the firefighters” as a known group (e.g., the profession, the service in general, or the local firefighters).
• Just bombeiros on its own would sound like you’re introducing some unspecified firefighters, and here that’s not the idea.

So aplaudiram os bombeiros corresponds naturally to “applauded the firefighters” in English, even though English could occasionally drop the article in some contexts.

Why is it os bombeiros (direct object) and not aos bombeiros?

In Portuguese, the verb aplaudir is normally used with a direct object, without a preposition:

• aplaudir alguém / aplaudir algo
  
  • aplaudiram os bombeiros = “they applauded the firefighters”
  • aplaudir o cantor = “to applaud the singer”

Aos bombeiros would be a + os bombeiros (“to the firefighters”). That’s the pattern you’d use with verbs that take an indirect object, like agradecer:

• agradecer aos bombeiros = “to thank the firefighters”

So:

• aplaudir os bombeiros = correct and standard.
• aplaudir aos bombeiros sounds unusual or wrong in most modern usage.

What does da in da janela mean exactly?

Da is a contraction:

• de + a janela → da janela

So literally: “from the window” or “of the window”, depending on context.

Here de expresses origin / position:

• aplaudiram os bombeiros da janela
  = “they applauded the firefighters from the window”

So:

• de = from
• a janela = the window
• da janela = from the window

Why is it da janela (singular) and not das janelas (plural), since there are many neighbours and many windows?

Portuguese often uses a generic singular for locations when each person has their own instance of something.

• da janela literally: “from the window”, but understood as “from their windows”.
• The focus is on the type of place (a window) rather than counting how many specific windows there are.

Both are possible:

• da janela – generic, very natural: “from the window” (each from their own).
• das janelas – “from the windows”, emphasizing multiple distinct windows; also correct, but stylistically a bit less common in this kind of sentence.

So da janela is idiomatic even though many windows are involved.

Could you say à janela instead of da janela? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could, but there is a nuance:

• da janela = de + a janela → “from the window”

  • Focus on the point of origin: the applause comes from the window area.

• à janela = a + a janela → literally “at/to the window”

  • Often used to mean “(standing) at the window”.
  • Estavam à janela = “They were at the window.”

So:

• aplaudiram os bombeiros da janela → they applauded the firefighters from (their) window(s).
• aplaudiram os bombeiros à janela → they were at the window, applauding the firefighters.

Both are acceptable; da janela is slightly more common to describe an action coming from that location, while à janela paints an image of people physically standing at the window.