O colchão é mais macio do que eu esperava, mas o edredão ainda cheira a loja.

O is the masculine singular definite article, equivalent to the.

So:

• o colchão = the mattress
• o edredão = the duvet / quilt

Both nouns are masculine in Portuguese, so they take o in the singular.

Here, the speaker is talking about a specific mattress and a specific duvet, not mattresses or duvets in general.

Portuguese often distinguishes between ser and estar:

• ser = to be, for more permanent or characteristic qualities
• estar = to be, for more temporary states or conditions

In O colchão é mais macio do que eu esperava, the softness is being presented as a characteristic of the mattress itself, so é sounds natural.

If you said está mais macio, it would suggest a change of state, for example:

• the mattress has become softer over time
• it feels softer today
• something happened to make it softer

So in this sentence, é is the normal choice.

This is the standard comparative structure:

• mais + adjective + do que = more + adjective + than

So:

• mais macio = softer / literally more soft
• mais macio do que eu esperava = softer than I expected

Portuguese usually forms comparatives this way rather than changing the adjective itself, so instead of an English-style softer, Portuguese says more soft.

Other examples:

• mais caro do que = more expensive than
• mais confortável do que = more comfortable than
• mais pesado do que = heavier than

Yes, both are possible.

• mais macio do que eu esperava
• mais macio que eu esperava

Both mean the same thing: softer than I expected.

That said, do que is very common and often feels a bit clearer or more careful, especially in European Portuguese. Learners are usually safest using do que after comparatives.

Because adjectives agree with the noun they describe.

• colchão is masculine
• so the adjective is masculine too: macio

Compare:

• o colchão macio = the soft mattress
• a almofada macia = the soft pillow

If the noun were feminine, you would use macia.

Here esperava is the imperfect tense, and it works very naturally for what I was expecting.

So:

• do que eu esperava = than I expected / than I was expecting

This is idiomatic in Portuguese when talking about expectations in the background of a situation.

Using esperei would sound less natural here. It refers to a completed act in the past, and in many contexts esperei can also strongly suggest I waited, not just I expected.

A useful point: esperar can mean both to wait and to expect, depending on context.

Here it clearly means to expect.

No. Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb form already makes the subject clear.

So both are possible:

• mais macio do que eu esperava
• mais macio do que esperava

Both are correct.

Including eu can add a little emphasis or clarity, but it is not required.

Ainda here means still.

So:

• ainda cheira a loja = it still smells like a shop

Its position is normal. In Portuguese, adverbs like ainda often come before the verb:

• ainda cheira
• ainda está
• ainda tenho

That is the most neutral placement in this sentence.

Because cheirar often uses the pattern cheirar a + noun, meaning:

• to smell like
• to smell of

So:

• cheira a loja = smells like a shop
• cheira a café = smells like coffee
• cheira a tinta = smells like paint

This is just the normal construction in Portuguese.

English speakers often want to use something like smells as / smells like word-for-word, but Portuguese uses cheirar a.

Because loja is being used in a general sense: shop smell, not a specific shop.

So cheira a loja means something like:

• it has that typical smell of a shop
• it smells new, recently bought, not yet aired out

This is common after cheirar a + noun when you mean a general type of smell:

• cheira a café
• cheira a fumo
• cheira a novo

If you used an article, the meaning would become more specific:

• cheira à loja = smells like the shop / that particular shop

So the version without the article is the right one here.

Yes, edredão is the normal European Portuguese word for a duvet or thick quilt.

This is useful because in Brazilian Portuguese you will often see edredom instead.

So:

• European Portuguese: edredão
• Brazilian Portuguese: edredom

Colchão is used in both Portugal and Brazil.

The ending -ão is one of the trickier sounds for English speakers. It is nasal, so it does not sound exactly like any normal English ending.

A few helpful points:

• ch in colchão sounds like sh
• -ão is a nasal sound, not a clear ow sound

Very rough approximations:

• colchão ≈ col-SHAW̃
• edredão ≈ eh-dreh-DAW̃

But these are only approximations. The final sound is nasal, meaning some of the air comes through the nose.

Also, in European Portuguese, unstressed vowels are often reduced, so actual pronunciation may sound more compressed than the spelling suggests.

No. It is natural, but there are other possibilities depending on the exact nuance.

For example:

• ainda cheira a novo = it still smells new
• ainda tem cheiro a loja = it still has that shop smell

The original sentence is perfectly good, but cheira a loja specifically evokes the idea that the duvet still smells like it has just come from the shop.