Nós vamos cozinhar brócolos para o jantar.

It is the very common future pattern ir + infinitive.

• vamos = we go / we are going, from ir
• cozinhar = to cook

So nós vamos cozinhar is literally something like we are going to cook, and in natural English it can also correspond to we will cook, depending on context.

In everyday Portuguese, especially in speech, this pattern is often more common than the simple future.

Because after vamos in this structure, the main verb stays in the infinitive.

Only ir gets conjugated:

• eu vou cozinhar
• tu vais cozinhar
• nós vamos cozinhar

So cozinhar does not change here.

You can usually leave it out.

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is. Vamos already tells you it is we.

So both of these are natural:

• Nós vamos cozinhar brócolos para o jantar.
• Vamos cozinhar brócolos para o jantar.

Using nós can add emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

Yes, it can, depending on context and intonation.

Without nós, vamos cozinhar could be understood either as:

• a statement about the future: we’re going to cook
• a suggestion: let’s cook

In this sentence, the presence of nós makes it sound more clearly like a statement about a plan, not a suggestion.

You can say Nós cozinharemos brócolos para o jantar, and it is grammatically correct.

But vamos cozinhar is usually more common in everyday speech, especially for plans and intentions. The simple future cozinharemos often sounds more formal, more written, or sometimes more distant.

So for normal conversation, vamos cozinhar is a very natural choice.

Because brócolos here is being used in a general, non-specific way, like a food item.

That is very common in Portuguese with things people cook, eat, buy, etc.:

• comprar pão
• fazer arroz
• cozinhar brócolos

If you said os brócolos, it would sound more specific, as if you were talking about particular broccoli already identified in the conversation.

In European Portuguese, brócolos is normally used in the plural when talking about the vegetable in general.

So even though English usually says broccoli as an uncountable food word, Portuguese often treats it differently.

The singular brócolo exists, but in a sentence like this, brócolos is the usual form.

Yes, brócolos is the usual form in Portugal.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the more common form is brócolis.

So this sentence sounds clearly European Portuguese in that respect.

para means for, and o jantar means dinner as a noun.

So para o jantar means for dinner.

The o is the definite article that goes with jantar. Portuguese often uses an article in expressions like this where English would simply say for dinner.

Also, in informal speech, para o is often reduced, but para o jantar is the full standard form.

Here it is a noun.

You can tell because it has the article o:

• o jantar = dinner

But jantar can also be a verb:

• jantar = to have dinner / to eat dinner

So the word can be both a noun and a verb, but in this sentence it is definitely a noun.

You could, but it would not mean the same thing as clearly.

Cozinhamos can mean:

• we cook (present, depending on context)
• we cooked (preterite, in writing it has the same form)

So Nós cozinhamos brócolos para o jantar does not clearly express a future plan.
If you want to say that the cooking is going to happen later, Nós vamos cozinhar is much clearer.

The nh sound is like the ny sound in canyon, or like Spanish ñ.

So cozinhar is roughly:

• koo-zee-NYAR

That is only a rough guide for an English speaker. In European Portuguese, unstressed vowels are reduced more than in English, so the real pronunciation is a bit tighter and less fully pronounced than that spelling suggests. But the important point is that nh is a single sound, not an n plus a separate h.