Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. - Today almost no cars circulate on our street.

Hoje não circulam carros na nossa rua.
= Today no cars drive / circulate on our street. (zero cars)
Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
= Today hardly any cars drive / circulate on our street. (maybe 1 or 2, but very few)

So quase softens the negation: it doesn’t completely deny the existence of cars, it says the number is very small.

Can quase go in a different place in the sentence?

The most natural and common placement is exactly as in the sentence:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.

Other possibilities:

Hoje carros quase não circulam na nossa rua. – possible, but more marked / less neutral; it sounds like you’re emphasising carros.
Hoje, na nossa rua, quase não circulam carros. – also fine; you’re just moving the time/place elements around.

What you generally don’t say is something like:

❌ Hoje não quase circulam carros... – wrong position; quase normally comes before não, not after.

So, for learners, it’s safest to keep quase não together, before the verb:
Hoje quase não + [verb] + [rest of sentence].

Why is it circulam carros instead of carros circulam?

Both are grammatically correct:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
Hoje quase não carros circulam na nossa rua. – ❌ incorrect (you can’t just move carros in there)
Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. (original)
Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.

The usual alternative order would be:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. (verb before subject – what we have)
Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. (subject before verb)

In European Portuguese, putting the verb before the subject is quite natural after certain adverbs or when introducing “new” information. In this sentence, circulam carros sounds very natural and neutral.

If you say carros circulam, you’re slightly emphasising carros (“cars are what don’t circulate”), but it’s still fine:

Hoje quase não carros circulam na nossa rua. – ❌ wrong: the noun can’t sit there like that
✅ Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
✅ Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. (more emphasis on cars)

What does circular mean with cars? Is it the normal verb for “to drive / to move” in traffic?

In traffic contexts, circular is commonly used in European Portuguese to mean:

to move around
to drive along / run (for vehicles)
to circulate

So:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
≈ Today hardly any cars are moving / are driving on our street.

Other very natural ways to talk about traffic:

Hoje há pouco trânsito na nossa rua. – There’s little traffic on our street today.
Hoje passam poucos carros na nossa rua. – Few cars pass along our street today.

Circular is slightly more neutral/formal than passar, but it’s perfectly everyday language when talking about traffic conditions.

What is na in na nossa rua? Why not just em nossa rua?

Na is a contraction of:

em (in / on) + a (the, feminine singular)

So:

em + a rua → na rua – on the street

Now add the possessive:

a nossa rua – our street (literally the our street)
em a nossa rua → na nossa rua – on our street

In European Portuguese, possessives normally come with a definite article:

a nossa rua (the our street)
na nossa rua (in/on the our street)

Em nossa rua (without the article) is much more typical of Brazilian Portuguese; in Portugal you will almost always hear na nossa rua.

Why is it nossa and not nosso?

The possessive must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies, not with the “owner”:

rua is feminine singular → a rua
Therefore: a nossa rua (nossa = feminine singular)

Examples:

o nosso carro – our car (carro = masculine singular)
os nossos carros – our cars (carros = masculine plural)
as nossas ruas – our streets (ruas = feminine plural)

So with rua, the correct form is nossa, not nosso.

Is quase não a kind of “double negative”? Do I need to add another negative word?

No, quase não is not a double negative; quase is not a negation, it’s an adverb of degree (almost).

não is the only true negative here.
quase just modifies how strong that não is.

You do not add another negative word like nunca, ninguém, nada, etc., unless you actually want that extra meaning:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
≈ Today hardly any cars circulate on our street.
Hoje quase nunca circulam carros na nossa rua.
≈ Today (or: these days) cars almost never circulate on our street.
(Here nunca adds “never” as another negative idea.)

So quase não by itself is correct and complete.

Could I say Hoje quase não há carros na nossa rua instead? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, and it’s very natural:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
Focus on the movement of cars (“hardly any cars are driving / going past”).
Hoje quase não há carros na nossa rua.
Focus on the presence / existence of cars (“there are hardly any cars (at all) on our street”).

In many real-life situations, they’re interchangeable, because if hardly any cars are driving by, there are also hardly any cars present. But the nuance is:

circular → movement, traffic flow
haver (há) → existence / quantity

Where can hoje go? Does it always have to be at the beginning?

No, hoje is a time adverb and can move around quite freely. All of these are grammatical:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua. – very natural
Quase não circulam carros na nossa rua hoje.
Na nossa rua, hoje, quase não circulam carros.

Placing hoje at the beginning is very common and sounds neutral. Putting it at the end is also fine, but you usually wouldn’t split quase não away from the verb just to move hoje.

Could I say Hoje mal circulam carros na nossa rua instead of quase não?

Yes, but the nuance shifts slightly.

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
= Today hardly any cars are driving on our street. (almost no cars; quantity is tiny)
Hoje mal circulam carros na nossa rua.
= Today cars almost don’t drive / barely drive on our street.
Here mal means “barely / hardly”, more about the action of circulating than the quantity.

In practice, both often end up meaning “there’s very little traffic”, and both are fine. Quase não is a bit more “neutral learner-friendly”; mal can sound a little more expressive.

Why is carros plural? Could I use a singular form like carro nenhum?

Carros is plural because we’re talking about cars in general, not one specific car:

Hoje quase não circulam carros na nossa rua.
= Today hardly any cars are driving on our street.

You could use other structures:

Hoje quase não circula carro nenhum na nossa rua.
= Today hardly any car drives on our street. (literally “hardly circulates no car”)
Very natural in speech; emphasises “not even one”.
Hoje circulam poucos carros na nossa rua.
= Few cars drive on our street today.

The original plural carros with quase não is very standard and clear.

What exactly does rua mean? Is it “street”, “road”, or something else?

In European Portuguese:

rua is usually a street in a town or city, especially a smaller one, often residential.
estrada is typically a road connecting places (between towns, countryside roads, etc.).
avenida is an avenue, generally wider, more important, often with more traffic.

So na nossa rua is best translated as on our street, the one where you live.