O perito calculou o prejuízo.

Perito means expert or specialist, but it is often used in more formal contexts than the English word expert. In Portuguese, it can refer to someone such as:

• a technical expert
• a legal or forensic expert
• an insurance assessor
• an expert witness

So in many contexts, perito sounds professional and official.

O is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

Both nouns are masculine singular:

• o perito = the expert
• o prejuízo = the loss / the damage

So the sentence refers to a specific expert and a specific loss or damage.

Calculou is the 3rd person singular of calcular in the pretérito perfeito simples.

It means the action was completed in the past:

• calculou = calculated
• also sometimes worked out, assessed, or estimated, depending on context

Because the subject is o perito, the meaning is the expert calculated/assessed.

No. Although calcular can mean to calculate in a mathematical sense, it can also mean:

• to work out
• to estimate
• to assess

In a sentence like O perito calculou o prejuízo, it often means the expert assessed or estimated the loss, especially in legal, insurance, or technical contexts.

No. This is a very important false friend.

Prejuízo usually means:

• loss
• damage
• harm
• financial loss

The English word prejudice is usually preconceito in Portuguese.

So:

• prejuízo ≠ prejudice
• preconceito = prejudice

Here, prejuízo most likely means loss or damage, especially in a financial or material sense.

Depending on context, it could refer to:

• money lost
• property damage
• harm caused by an event
• losses in a business or legal case

So the most natural English version may change with context: loss, damages, or damage.

The accent marks the stressed syllable and helps show the pronunciation.

Prejuízo is stressed like this:

• pre-ju-Í-zo

That accented í is pronounced clearly as its own syllable. The accent helps show that the stress falls there, not earlier in the word.

A rough guide is:

u puh-REE-tu kahl-koo-LOH u pruh-zhoo-EE-zoo

A few useful points:

• O often sounds more like u in European Portuguese when unstressed.
• perito is stressed on ri.
• calculou is stressed on the last syllable.
• The j in prejuízo sounds like the s in measure.

This is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

Yes. That changes the meaning from the expert to an expert.

Compare:

• O perito calculou o prejuízo. = The expert calculated/assessed the loss.
• Um perito calculou o prejuízo. = An expert calculated/assessed the loss.

So the grammar is fine in both cases; the difference is definite versus indefinite reference.

Yes, often it can.

Portuguese frequently leaves out the subject when it is clear from context. So you might hear:

• Calculou o prejuízo.

This could mean He/She calculated the loss, if the speaker already knows who is being talked about.

In your sentence, the subject is included because the speaker wants to identify it clearly: o perito.

Yes. This is the normal, neutral order in Portuguese:

• Subject + Verb + Object
• O perito
  • calculou
    • o prejuízo

It is a very standard sentence structure.

Portuguese can change word order for emphasis, but this version is the most straightforward and natural.

It would become:

A perita calculou o prejuízo.

Changes:

• o perito → a perita

The verb calculou stays the same, because it is still 3rd person singular. Only the article and noun change to match the feminine gender.