Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen na primavera. - Ana found out that she is allergic to pollen in spring.

It usually doesn’t add a strong meaning; it’s more about the natural rhythm of the language and can sound warmer or more colloquial. In European Portuguese, saying A Ana descobriu… is completely standard.

In Brazilian Portuguese, using the article before names is much less common in standard speech (though some regions do it), so you’ll more often hear just Ana descobriu….

Can we leave out the article and just say Ana descobriu que tem alergia…?

Yes. Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen na primavera is grammatically correct.

In European Portuguese:

With article (A Ana) = very common, often feels more natural in conversation.
Without article (Ana) = also correct, can sound a bit more formal, written, or neutral depending on context.

So both are fine; you’ll simply hear A Ana more often in everyday European Portuguese.

Why is descobriu (past) followed by tem (present) and not another past tense?

Portuguese often keeps the present tense in the que-clause when the situation is still true at the time of speaking:

A Ana descobriu que tem alergia…
“Ana found out that she has an allergy…” (and she still has it now)

The verb descobriu (she discovered) is a completed action in the past. But the allergy is a continuing state, so tem (present) is natural.

If you said descobriu que tinha alergia, that tends to suggest the allergy belonged to a past period or is being described in a “background” way in a story, not necessarily as a current, still-true fact.

So when would I use descobriu que tinha alergia instead of tem?

You’d use tinha (imperfect) mainly when:

The allergy is no longer relevant/true:
- Ela descobriu que tinha alergia quando era criança, mas isso passou.
  “She found out she had an allergy when she was a child, but that went away.”
You’re telling a story and focusing on background information:
- Quando chegou ao hospital, descobriu que tinha alergia a vários medicamentos.
  Here tinha fits into a narrative about that past moment; we’re not focusing on whether it’s still true now.

If you mean she still has the allergy now, descobriu que tem alergia is the default.

Why is it tem alergia and not é alérgica?

Both are possible, but they’re different structures:

Tem alergia a X = “has an allergy to X” (using the noun alergia)
É alérgica a X (fem.) / é alérgico a X (masc.) = “is allergic to X” (using the adjective)

Your sentence could also be:

A Ana descobriu que é alérgica ao pólen na primavera.

Meaning-wise, they’re very close. Tem alergia a… can feel a bit more neutral or medical (“has an allergy”), whereas é alérgica a… is more “She is allergic to…”. In everyday speech, both are very commonly used.

What exactly is ao in ao pólen? Why not just a pólen?

Ao is a contraction of the preposition a + the masculine singular definite article o:

a
- o → ao
a
- os → aos
a
- a → à
a
- as → às

Since pólen is masculine and we’re talking about a specific thing (“the pollen”), we use ao pólen (literally “to the pollen / allergy to the pollen”), not bare a pólen.

So:

alergia a
- o pólen → alergia ao pólen

Could we say alergia de pólen instead of alergia ao pólen?

No, that would sound wrong in Portuguese. The standard pattern is:

ter alergia a
- [thing]
  alergia ao pólen, alergia a gatos, alergia a marisco

Using de here would change or break the meaning. De after a noun often expresses origin, material, or possession (e.g. copo de vidro – glass cup, livro de Ana – Ana’s book), but alergia de X is not the idiomatic way to say “allergy to X”.

Why is there no ela after que? Why don’t we say que ela tem alergia…?

Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele/ela, etc.) are often omitted when the subject is clear from context or from the verb ending.

From descobriu, we already know it’s “she” (third person singular). So inside the que-clause, Portuguese naturally drops ela:

A Ana descobriu que tem alergia… (most natural)
A Ana descobriu que ela tem alergia… (grammatically possible, but usually unnecessary and can sound a bit heavy or contrastive, like “that she has an allergy (as opposed to someone else)”).

So leaving ela out is the normal choice here.

What does na primavera literally mean, and how is it formed?

Na is a contraction of em + a:

em
- a → na (feminine singular)
em
- o → no
em
- as → nas
em
- os → nos

Primavera is feminine (a primavera), so:

em a primavera → na primavera = “in the spring”

In Portuguese, names of the seasons normally take the definite article:

no inverno – in (the) winter
na primavera – in (the) spring
no verão – in (the) summer
no outono – in (the) autumn/fall

In alergia ao pólen na primavera, does na primavera describe the allergy (seasonal), or the time when Ana discovered it?

As written, A Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen na primavera is a bit ambiguous, but native speakers will usually understand na primavera as modifying the allergy, i.e.:

She has an allergy to pollen in the spring → a seasonal pollen allergy.

If you want to make it clear that the discovery happened in spring, you’d usually move the time expression:

Na primavera, a Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen.
“In the spring, Ana found out she has a pollen allergy.”

If you want to emphasise the allergy is seasonal, you keep it close to pólen as in the original sentence, or even say:

…tem alergia ao pólen, sobretudo na primavera.
“…has an allergy to pollen, especially in the spring.”

Could we move na primavera earlier in the sentence?

Yes, and the position changes the usual interpretation:

Na primavera, a Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen.
→ Most naturally: In the spring, Ana discovered that she has a pollen allergy.
Here the time phrase clearly goes with descobriu.
A Ana descobriu na primavera que tem alergia ao pólen.
→ Also tends to link na primavera to descobriu, though the focus is slightly different (more on the time of discovery in the middle of the sentence).
A Ana descobriu que tem alergia ao pólen na primavera.
→ Often heard as: she has an allergy to pollen in spring (seasonal allergy), as mentioned before.

Word order is quite flexible in Portuguese, but small shifts like this affect what listeners naturally associate na primavera with.

How do you pronounce pólen, and what does the accent mark do?

Pólen has two syllables: PÓ-len.

pó – open ó, stressed (similar to the vowel in British “hot”)
len – unstressed, with a reduced e sound (in European Portuguese it’s often quite weak, something like “lən”)

The acute accent (´) on ó marks the stressed syllable and shows that the o is an open, stressed vowel. Without the accent, the stress rules would be different, and the word would be mispronounced.