Na terça-feira, a professora confirmou que a matrícula estava correta.

Na is the contraction of em + a.

• em = in / on / at, depending on context
• a = the

So na terça-feira literally looks like in the Tuesday, but in natural English it means on Tuesday.

This kind of contraction is extremely common in Portuguese:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

In Portuguese, most weekdays are traditionally formed with -feira:

• segunda-feira = Monday
• terça-feira = Tuesday
• quarta-feira = Wednesday
• quinta-feira = Thursday
• sexta-feira = Friday

You can think of terça-feira as the standard full form for Tuesday.

In everyday speech, people often shorten it to just terça, especially in informal contexts:

• Na terça-feira = On Tuesday
• Na terça = On Tuesday

Both are normal, but terça-feira is a bit more complete and neutral.

The comma separates the opening time expression from the main clause.

• Na terça-feira, = On Tuesday,
• a professora confirmou... = the teacher confirmed...

This is very similar to English, where you might also write:

• On Tuesday, the teacher confirmed...

The comma is especially common when a sentence begins with a time phrase.

Portuguese very often uses the definite article before nouns where English does not.

So:

• a professora = the teacher

Even when English might say just teacher in some contexts, Portuguese often prefers the article.

Also, professora is the feminine form:

• o professor = the male teacher
• a professora = the female teacher

The article a matches the gender of the noun.

Because the sentence is referring to a female teacher.

In Portuguese, many nouns referring to people change form depending on gender:

• professor = male teacher
• professora = female teacher

The article changes too:

• o professor
• a professora

So a professora confirmou... means the person doing the confirming is a woman.

Matrícula can mean enrolment, registration, or the act/status of being registered, depending on context.

In this sentence, it most likely refers to a student’s enrolment/registration record or the fact that the enrolment had been done correctly.

It is a feminine noun:

• a matrícula

Be careful: in other contexts, matrícula can also mean things like a license plate or registration number, depending on the country and situation. Here, because of a professora, it is clearly the school-related meaning.

Confirmou que means confirmed that.

This is a very common structure in Portuguese:

• confirmar que... = to confirm that...
• disse que... = said that...
• explicou que... = explained that...

So the structure is:

• a professora confirmou = the teacher confirmed
• que a matrícula estava correta = that the enrolment was correct

The word que introduces the subordinate clause, just like that in English.

This is a very common learner question because both ser and estar can translate as to be.

Here, estava correta is used because the sentence is talking about the state/condition of the enrolment at that moment.

• estar often points to a condition or state
• ser often points to identity, classification, or an inherent characteristic

So:

• a matrícula estava correta = the enrolment was in a correct state / was correct

Using era correta would sound less natural here, because the sentence is not really defining what the enrolment is by nature; it is saying that the registration details/status were correct.

Because the sentence is narrated in the past.

• confirmou = confirmed
• estava = was

So the teacher confirmed, at that time, that the enrolment was correct.

This is a normal tense sequence in Portuguese: a past reporting verb followed by a past form in the subordinate clause.

They are different because they do different jobs.

• confirmou is the pretérito perfeito: a completed action
  
  • the teacher confirmed
• estava is the pretérito imperfeito: a state or ongoing situation in the past
  
  • the enrolment was correct

So the sentence combines:

1. a completed event: the confirmation happened
2. a background state: the enrolment was in a correct state

This is very natural in Portuguese.

Because correta is an adjective agreeing with matrícula, which is feminine singular.

Agreement in Portuguese is important:

• a matrícula = feminine singular
• correta = feminine singular adjective

Compare:

• o documento estava correto = the document was correct
• a matrícula estava correta = the enrolment was correct

So the adjective changes form to match the noun.

Yes. Na terça is very common and perfectly natural in spoken Portuguese.

• Na terça-feira, a professora confirmou...
• Na terça, a professora confirmou...

The longer version is a little more explicit or formal-neutral; the shorter one is more conversational.

Yes, the word order can be changed.

All of these are possible:

• Na terça-feira, a professora confirmou que a matrícula estava correta.
• A professora confirmou, na terça-feira, que a matrícula estava correta.
• A professora confirmou que a matrícula estava correta na terça-feira.

But the meaning can shift slightly depending on placement:

• At the beginning, Na terça-feira sets the time for the whole statement.
• Near the end, it may sound more closely attached to estava correta unless context makes it clear.

So the original version is a very clear and natural way to present the sentence.

In European Portuguese, terça-feira is roughly pronounced like:

• TER-suh FAY-ruh

A few useful notes:

• ter sounds close to tehr
• the ç gives an s sound
• unstressed vowels are often reduced in European Portuguese, so the middle sounds can be less clear than in careful spelling-based pronunciation
• feira sounds roughly like FAY-ruh

If you are learning European Portuguese, it is important to get used to vowel reduction, because native speech often sounds more compressed than the spelling suggests.