Quando eu submeter a versão final, vou desligar o computador e descansar, porque passei a tarde inteira entre o scanner e a fotocopiadora.

Because this quando clause refers to a future action: when I submit the final version.

In Portuguese, when quando points to something that has not happened yet, the verb usually goes in the future subjunctive:

• quando eu submeter = when I submit (in the future)
• quando eu submeto = when I submit / whenever I submit (habitual or present-time idea)

So here submeter is the correct form because the submission is still to come.

It is conjugated. In this sentence, submeter is the future subjunctive form for eu.

That can be confusing because for many verbs, the future subjunctive looks exactly like the personal infinitive in some forms.

For submeter:

• infinitive: submeter
• future subjunctive:
  • eu submeter
  • tu submeteres
  • ele/ela/você submeter
  • nós submetermos
  • vós submeterdes
  • eles/elas/vocês submeterem

So in this sentence, it may look like an infinitive, but functionally it is a finite verb form.

That is true: Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

But here eu submeter and ele/ela submeter have the same form, so adding eu helps make the subject explicit.

So:

• Quando submeter a versão final... = possible if context already makes it obvious who is speaking
• Quando eu submeter a versão final... = clearer and slightly more explicit

In other words, eu is not strictly necessary, but it is very natural here.

Sometimes yes, but the nuance changes.

• submeter = to submit, often in a formal sense, for approval, evaluation, or processing
• entregar = to hand in / deliver / give

So submeter a versão final sounds more formal and fits contexts like:

• submitting a final version of a report
• submitting a dissertation
• submitting a form or application

If you said entregar a versão final, it would still make sense in many situations, but it sounds a bit more like physically handing it in rather than formally submitting it.

Because ir + infinitive is a very common way to talk about the future in Portuguese, especially in everyday language.

So:

• vou desligar = I’m going to turn off
• desligarei = I will turn off

Both are correct, but vou desligar sounds more natural in ordinary conversation. The simple future (desligarei) is often more formal, more written, or sometimes more emphatic.

This is the standard ir + infinitive future construction.

• vou desligar = I am going to turn off
• vou descansar = I am going to rest

When one auxiliary verb applies to two coordinated actions, Portuguese usually does not repeat it unnecessarily:

• vou desligar o computador e descansar

This means:

• I’m going to turn off the computer and rest

You could repeat it:

• vou desligar o computador e vou descansar

But that usually sounds more emphatic or more segmented. The version in the sentence is the more natural streamlined one.

Here passar means to spend in the sense of spending time.

So:

• passei a tarde inteira = I spent the whole afternoon

This is a very common Portuguese structure:

• passar o dia = to spend the day
• passar a manhã = to spend the morning
• passar a noite = to spend the night

So do not read passar here as only to pass or to go past. In time expressions, it often means to spend.

Because passei is the pretérito perfeito, which presents the action as a completed whole.

• passei a tarde inteira = I spent the whole afternoon
  A finished, complete event.

By contrast:

• passava a tarde inteira would usually suggest something habitual, repeated, or background description, depending on context:
  • I used to spend the whole afternoon...
  • I was spending the whole afternoon...

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about one completed afternoon, so passei is the natural choice.

Yes, toda a tarde is also possible, but a tarde inteira is very natural and often slightly clearer.

Both can mean the whole afternoon:

• passei a tarde inteira a trabalhar
• passei toda a tarde a trabalhar

A useful point for learners is that inteiro/a strongly emphasizes the idea of the entire thing from beginning to end.

Also, toda a tarde can sometimes, in other contexts, be understood more like every afternoon, depending on sentence structure and context, whereas a tarde inteira is very clearly the whole afternoon on that occasion.

It is partly literal, but it also has an idiomatic feel.

Literally, it means between the scanner and the photocopier. But in context it suggests the speaker spent the whole afternoon going back and forth between those two machines, probably scanning, copying, organizing, or preparing documents.

So it gives the image of being busy with office equipment rather than just physically standing in the middle of them.

Because here it means because, introducing a reason:

• ..., porque passei a tarde inteira... = ..., because I spent the whole afternoon...

This is the normal conjunction porque.

Learners often confuse:

• porque = because
• por que = why / for which reason
• porquê = the reason / the why
• por quê = why? at the end of a clause

In this sentence, the speaker is giving the reason for wanting to switch off the computer and rest, so porque is the correct form.

Yes.

• scanner is very common in European Portuguese and is normally written just like that, as an English loanword.
• fotocopiadora is the normal word for photocopier / copy machine.

In Portugal, scanner is much more natural than a form like escâner, which is not standard European Portuguese usage.

So the sentence sounds perfectly natural in a Portugal context.

Because Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English, especially with specific, identifiable things.

Here each noun refers to a specific item or a clearly understood one:

• a versão final = the final version
• o computador = the computer
• o scanner = the scanner
• a fotocopiadora = the photocopier

In English, article use is often lighter in some expressions, but in Portuguese these articles are very natural and expected.

Fotocopiadora is feminine because it is a native Portuguese noun ending in -a, and nouns of this type are very often feminine.

Scanner is a borrowed word, and borrowed nouns referring to devices or objects are often treated as masculine by default in Portuguese:

• o scanner
• o computador
• o telemóvel

So the gender here is simply part of how each noun is used in Portuguese:

• o scanner
• a fotocopiadora