O meu irmão conduz bem, mas odeia engarrafamentos e curvas perigosas.

In European Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article before a possessive:

• o meu irmão = my brother
• a minha irmã = my sister
• os meus amigos = my friends

So for a learner of Portuguese from Portugal, o meu irmão is the most natural choice here.
English does not use an article in this situation, so this often feels strange at first.

Conduz is the 3rd person singular of the verb conduzir in the present tense:

• eu conduzo = I drive
• tu conduzes = you drive
• ele/ela conduz = he/she drives

So O meu irmão conduz bem means My brother drives well.

Because bem is an adverb, and it modifies the verb conduz.

• conduz bem = drives well

By contrast, bom is an adjective, so it describes a noun:

• um bom condutor = a good driver

This is similar to English:

• He drives well
• He is a good driver

Yes, dirigir can also mean to drive, but in Portugal conduzir is very common when talking about driving a vehicle.

So:

• O meu irmão conduz bem sounds very natural in European Portuguese.

Dirigir also exists, but it can be a bit broader in meaning, since it can also mean to direct or to manage in other contexts.

The sentence is in the present tense, but here it describes a general habit or characteristic, not necessarily something happening right now.

So:

• O meu irmão conduz bem = My brother drives well / is a good driver
• odeia engarrafamentos e curvas perigosas = he hates traffic jams and dangerous bends/curves

It is talking about what he is generally like.

The infinitive is odiar = to hate.

Odeia is the 3rd person singular present form:

• eu odeio = I hate
• tu odeias = you hate
• ele/ela odeia = he/she hates

So mas odeia... means but he hates...

Because the sentence is talking about these things in general, not about specific traffic jams or specific dangerous curves.

• odeia engarrafamentos = hates traffic jams
• odeia curvas perigosas = hates dangerous curves

This gives a broad, general meaning.

In some contexts, Portuguese can also use articles with general nouns, but here the version without articles sounds very natural and straightforward.

Because in Portuguese, descriptive adjectives often come after the noun.

• curvas perigosas = dangerous curves
• carro rápido = fast car
• estrada perigosa = dangerous road

This is one of the most common word-order differences from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun.

Because it has to agree with curvas, which is feminine plural.

• curva perigosa = dangerous curve
• curvas perigosas = dangerous curves

So the adjective changes to match the noun in gender and number.

Here:

• curvas = feminine plural
• perigosas = feminine plural

A useful approximation is eer-MOWN with a nasal ending, but the real European Portuguese pronunciation is more nasal than anything in standard English.

A few points:

• the r in the middle is a light tapped r
• -ão is a very common Portuguese nasal ending
• the stress is on the last syllable: ir-MÃO

If you know IPA, it is approximately /iɾˈmɐ̃w̃/ in European Portuguese.

On its own, conduz is approximately con-DOOsh in European Portuguese.

In the sentence conduz bem, the final z links into the next word and sounds more like zh because it comes before the voiced b of bem.

So it sounds roughly like:

• conduzh bem

This kind of sound change between words is very common in connected European Portuguese speech.

Yes. It comes from the same root as garrafa = bottle.

The idea behind engarrafamento is something like bottling up or jamming up, which is why it means traffic jam.

So:

• engarrafamento = traffic jam
• engarrafamentos = traffic jams

It is a good example of how Portuguese often builds longer words from familiar roots.