Antes de embrulhar o presente, procura a fita adesiva na gaveta da cozinha.

In Portuguese, antes is normally followed by de when the next word is a verb.

So:

• antes de embrulhar = before wrapping
• antes de sair = before leaving
• antes de comer = before eating

This is a very common pattern: antes de + infinitive.

After antes de, Portuguese usually uses the infinitive to talk about an action in a general way.

So antes de embrulhar o presente literally means before wrapping the gift.

This is similar to English using before + -ing:

• before wrapping
• before leaving
• before opening

In Portuguese, the infinitive is the normal choice here.

Here, procura is a command.

It is the affirmative imperative form used with tu in European Portuguese, so it means:

• look for
• find
• go and get, depending on context

The form procura also looks exactly like the present tense for ele/ela/você:

• ele procura = he looks for
• você procura = you look for

So only the context tells you which one it is. In this sentence, it is clearly a command.

Because this sentence is speaking to one person informally, using tu.

In European Portuguese:

• tu command: procura
• você command: procure

So:

• Procura a fita adesiva... = informal, to one person
• Procure a fita adesiva... = more formal

In Portugal, tu is very common in everyday speech, so procura sounds natural in many situations.

Procurar usually means to look for or to search for.

In a sentence like this, it can sound like:

• look for the tape
• find the tape
• go get the tape

The exact English wording depends on context, but the core idea is that the person should try to locate it.

Portuguese uses definite articles very often, sometimes more often than English.

Here, o presente means the gift, probably a specific gift already understood from the situation.

Even when English might sometimes say just gift in a more general instruction, Portuguese often prefers the article:

• o presente
• a porta
• o livro

So this is very normal Portuguese usage.

Fita adesiva means adhesive tape or sticky tape.

It is not just any fita. On its own, fita can mean things like:

• ribbon
• tape
• strip

Adding adesiva makes it clear that it is the sticky kind used for wrapping or fixing things.

In Portugal, you may also hear fita-cola in everyday speech.

These are contractions, which are extremely common in Portuguese.

• em + a = na
• de + a = da

So:

• na gaveta = em a gaveta = in the drawer
• da cozinha = de a cozinha = of the kitchen / from the kitchen

Portuguese usually contracts these combinations, so em a and de a would sound wrong here.

It can naturally be understood as either:

• the kitchen drawer
• the drawer in the kitchen

Literally, da cozinha means of the kitchen, but in normal English the best translation is often the kitchen drawer.

The phrase simply identifies which drawer is meant.

The comma separates the introductory time clause from the main command.

Structure:

• Antes de embrulhar o presente, = before wrapping the gift
• procura a fita adesiva... = look for the tape...

This is similar to English, where a comma is also often used after an opening phrase like:

• Before you leave,
• After dinner,
• When you arrive,

So the comma helps mark the pause and the sentence structure.

Yes. Portuguese allows some flexibility.

For example, you could also say:

• Procura a fita adesiva na gaveta da cozinha antes de embrulhar o presente.

That would still be natural.

The original version puts Antes de embrulhar o presente first to highlight the sequence of actions: first find the tape, then wrap the gift.

A helpful approximation for an English speaker is:

• em-broo-LHAR

The stress falls on the last syllable: lhar.

The tricky part is lh, which is a special Portuguese sound. It is similar to the lli sound that some English speakers use in million, though it is not exactly the same.

So embrulhar should not sound like:

• em-brul-har with a hard l
• or em-brulyar with a full y

It is a soft palatal sound: lh.

A useful approximation is:

• pruh-KOO-ruh

The stress is on cu.

In European Portuguese, the unstressed vowels are often reduced, so it may sound shorter and less open than a learner expects.

So procura may sound a bit more compact than in Brazilian Portuguese.