Cada vez que ouço a palavra “injeção”, fico nervoso, mas a enfermeira acalma-me.

It means every time or whenever.

So Cada vez que ouço a palavra injeção... means Every time I hear the word injection...

It is a very common structure in Portuguese for repeated situations. Another natural option is sempre que, which is very close in meaning.

Ouço is the first-person singular present of ouvir = to hear.

This verb is irregular in the present tense:

• eu ouço = I hear
• tu ouves = you hear
• ele/ela ouve = he/she hears
• nós ouvimos = we hear
• vós ouvis = you hear
• eles/elas ouvem = they hear

So ouço does not follow a fully regular pattern, and that is why it may look surprising at first.

Because the sentence describes a habitual reaction, not one single event.

The idea is:

• whenever this happens,
• this is what usually happens next.

English does the same thing:

• Every time I hear the word injection, I get nervous...

So the present tense here expresses a repeated, general truth.

Because ficar often means to become, to get, or to end up in a state.

So:

• fico nervoso = I get nervous
• estou nervoso = I am nervous

In this sentence, the speaker is describing a change of state caused by hearing the word. That is why fico is the natural choice.

Yes. Adjectives in Portuguese usually agree with the person they describe.

So:

• a male speaker would say fico nervoso
• a female speaker would say fico nervosa

Everything else in the sentence stays the same.

Because both nouns are feminine singular:

• a palavra = the word
• a enfermeira = the nurse

Also, Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English.

So a enfermeira is very normal even where English might simply say the nurse or sometimes just nurse in a different context.

Because injeção is being mentioned as a word, not as the actual thing itself.

The structure is:

• a palavra injeção = the word injection

So injeção is functioning like the content of the word being named. That is why you do not say a palavra a injeção here.

It has two parts:

• acalma = calms / soothes
  from the verb acalmar = to calm
• me = me

So acalma-me means calms me or soothes me.

A very useful comparison:

• acalma-me = calms me
• acalmo-me = I calm myself down

So the position of the verb ending matters a lot.

This is a very important feature of European Portuguese.

In a normal affirmative main clause, object pronouns are often attached after the verb:

• acalma-me

This is called enclisis.

In Brazilian Portuguese, learners often hear:

• me acalma

But in European Portuguese, acalma-me is the standard neutral form here.

The hyphen is also part of the normal written form.

No. Here it is a direct object pronoun, not a reflexive pronoun.

The basic pattern is:

• acalmar alguém = to calm someone

So:

• a enfermeira acalma-me = the nurse calms me

It does not mean I calm myself. For that, you would need something like acalmo-me.

Injeção is the modern spelling.

Older European Portuguese spelling often wrote this word as injecção. You may still see that form in older books, older subtitles, older websites, or materials that predate the spelling reform.

So:

• injecção = older spelling
• injeção = current standard spelling

If you are learning modern Portuguese from Portugal, injeção is the form to use.

There are two main reasons:

1. Cada vez que ouço a palavra injeção is an introductory subordinate clause.
2. mas normally introduces a contrasting clause and is usually preceded by a comma.

So the punctuation helps separate the parts clearly:

• Cada vez que ouço a palavra injeção,
• fico nervoso,
• mas a enfermeira acalma-me.

It is standard punctuation.

Yes. Sempre que is very natural and means almost the same thing here.

For example:

• Sempre que ouço a palavra injeção, fico nervoso, mas a enfermeira acalma-me.

That sounds perfectly normal.

Cada vez que focuses a bit more literally on each time, while sempre que often feels like whenever. In this sentence, both work very well.

A rough guide:

• ouço: the ç sounds like s
• injeção: the j sounds like the s in measure, and the ending -ão is nasal

Very approximate English-style help:

• ouço ≈ OH-so
• injeção ≈ in-zhe-SÃÕ

A few important points:

• injeção is stressed on the last syllable: -ção
• the ending -ão is nasal, so it does not sound like plain English ow
• ç always gives an s sound

If you want to sound more European Portuguese, listening and repeating native audio is especially helpful for words with nasal endings like injeção.