Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Em frente à embaixada, há uma manifestação pacífica sobre vistos de estudantes. - In front of the embassy, there is a peaceful demonstration about student visas.

In European Portuguese, the standard way to say “there is / there are” is há, not tem.
Using tem with this meaning (“tem uma manifestação…”) is very common in Brazilian Portuguese, but in Portugal it sounds informal/Brazilian and is not considered standard.

Why is it à embaixada and not a embaixada or na embaixada?

À here is a contraction of two a’s:

em frente a (preposition required by the expression “in front of”)
a embaixada (“the embassy”, with the definite article a)
= em frente à embaixada

So:

à embaixada = a (preposition) + a (definite article)

You do not normally write these two a’s separately in Portuguese; you join them and add the grave accent (à). That joining is called crase.

Why not “na embaixada”?

na embaixada = em + a embaixada = “at the embassy / in the embassy”
em frente à embaixada = “in front of the embassy” (outside, opposite it)

So na embaixada would change the meaning to being inside/at the embassy, not in front of it.

Why not just “a embaixada” without the accent?

Because the expression em frente a uses the preposition a, and embaixada is specific here, so it needs the article a as well. Those two must contract to à.

What is the difference between em frente a, em frente de, and à frente de?

All three can be related to “in front of / ahead of”, but they’re used slightly differently.

em frente a / em frente à
- Very common for physical position facing something:
  - Em frente à embaixada – “In front of the embassy (facing it).”
- You’ll often see em frente à + [place] in Portugal.
em frente de / em frente da
- Also used for physical position, often interchangeable with em frente a in practice:
  - Em frente da estação – “In front of the station.”
- You will hear both em frente a and em frente de in European Portuguese; usage varies by speaker/region.
à frente de
- More like “ahead of / in front (positionally)”, not necessarily face‑to‑face:
  - O carro azul está à frente do vermelho. – “The blue car is ahead of the red one.”
  - Ele está à frente da equipa. – “He is in charge of / at the head of the team.”

In your sentence, em frente à embaixada clearly means physically in front of the embassy building.

Why is it uma manifestação pacífica and not um manifestação pacífico?

Because of gender and agreement.

manifestação ends in -ção, and in Portuguese that almost always means it is feminine.
- So you need the feminine indefinite article uma, not um:
  - uma manifestação (feminine)
  - um protesto (masculine)
pacífica is an adjective and must agree with the noun in gender and number:
- uma manifestação pacífica – feminine singular
- duas manifestações pacíficas – feminine plural
- um protesto pacífico – masculine singular
- dois protestos pacíficos – masculine plural

So uma manifestação pacífica is the correct feminine agreement.

Is there any difference between manifestação and protesto?

They overlap in meaning, but there are nuances:

manifestação
- Often refers to a public demonstration, usually organised, with a crowd on the street, banners, slogans, etc.
- Common in news and formal contexts:
  - Há uma manifestação em frente ao parlamento.
- In Portugal, colloquially you also hear uma manif (short for manifestação).
protesto
- Can be any kind of protest or objection, not just a street demonstration:
  - a protest letter (uma carta de protesto)
  - a formal protest in sports, politics, etc.
- You can still say um protesto na rua, but manifestação sounds more specific to that image of a crowd demonstration.

In your sentence, manifestação fits well because it suggests a public street demonstration.

What exactly does sobre mean here in sobre vistos de estudantes?

Here, sobre means “about / regarding / on the subject of”.

uma manifestação pacífica sobre vistos de estudantes
= “a peaceful protest about / concerning student visas.”

So the topic of the protest is visas, not the students themselves.

Other common uses of sobre:

um livro sobre política – a book about politics
uma palestra sobre saúde mental – a talk about mental health

Sobre can also mean “on top of” physically (e.g. sobre a mesa – on the table), but in the pattern “manifestação sobre X”, it clearly has the “about” meaning.

Should it be vistos de estudante or vistos de estudantes? Which sounds more natural in Portugal?

Both are possible, but they suggest slightly different perspectives:

vistos de estudante (singular after de)
- Very common in official/administrative language as a type of visa:
  - visto de estudante – “student visa” (visa category)
  - vistos de estudante – “student visas” (of that category)
- This is probably the most natural if you mean the visa category in general.
vistos de estudantes (plural after de)
- Grammatically fine; it tends to sound more like visas belonging to students in general:
  - “visas of (some) students”, “visas that students have”.

In real usage in Portugal, you’ll often hear:

visto de estudante or
visto de estudo (“study visa” / “study permit”).

So if you’re talking about the immigration category, vistos de estudante (or vistos de estudo) would be the most idiomatic choices.

Can I change the word order and say Há uma manifestação pacífica em frente à embaixada sobre vistos de estudantes?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:

Em frente à embaixada, há uma manifestação pacífica sobre vistos de estudantes.
Há uma manifestação pacífica em frente à embaixada sobre vistos de estudantes.

Both are fine. The difference is mostly one of emphasis and style:

Starting with Em frente à embaixada emphasizes the location first.
Starting with Há uma manifestação… emphasizes the existence/event first.

In spoken Portuguese, both options sound natural. Written texts often put the place at the beginning when they want to “set the scene” first.

Is the comma after embaixada obligatory?

In this structure, the comma is standard and recommended in Portuguese:

Em frente à embaixada, há uma manifestação…

Rule of thumb: when you place an adverbial phrase of place/time at the beginning of the sentence, it is usually followed by a comma:

Ontem, choveu muito. – “Yesterday, it rained a lot.”
No centro da cidade, há muitos turistas.

So while some speakers may drop the comma in informal writing, in correct written Portuguese the comma here is expected.

How do you pronounce embaixada, manifestação, and vistos?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation:

embaixada – embassy
- IPA: [ẽbajˈʃaðɐ]
- Roughly: “em-bai-SHAH-də”
  - em – nasal “em” (like French “en”)
  - bai – like “bye”
  - x = /ʃ/, like “sh” in “shoe”
  - final -da is very light, almost “də”.
manifestação – demonstration/protest
- IPA: [mɐnifɛʃtɐˈsɐ̃w̃]
- Roughly: “muh-nee-fesh-tuh-SÃW”
  - stress on the last syllable -ção
  - ç = “s” sound
  - -ção is a nasal sound, similar to “sown” but nasalised.
vistos – visas
- IPA: [ˈviʃtuʃ] (EP)
- Roughly: “VEESH-toosh”
  - v like English “v”
  - s between vowels often sounds like /ʃ/ in European Portuguese
  - final -os is reduced, not a full “oss”.

These are approximations; real European Portuguese tends to reduce and “swallow” many unstressed vowels.

Does há change in the plural, like hão or something similar?

No. With the meaning “there is / there are”, há is always the same form, regardless of whether the thing is singular or plural:

Há uma manifestação. – There is a protest.
Há duas manifestações. – There are two protests.
Há muitos estudantes. – There are many students.

There is no plural form like hão in modern Portuguese for this impersonal use. If you want, you can also use existir:

Existe uma manifestação. – There exists a protest.
Existem duas manifestações. – There exist two protests.

But for everyday “there is/there are”, há is by far the most common.

Why is it de estudantes and not dos estudantes?

This is about the presence or absence of the definite article:

de estudantes – “of students” in a general, non‑specific sense
dos estudantes = de + os estudantes – “of the students”, referring to a specific group that the listener should know about.

In vistos de estudantes, the idea is student visas in general, not the visas of some particular group of students that has already been identified in the conversation.

Compare:

vistos de estudantes – visas related to students (student visas in general)
vistos dos estudantes que chegaram ontem – the visas of the students who arrived yesterday (specific students)

So de estudantes is the natural choice here for a generic topic.