O ancinho ficou no chão.

Ficou is the 3rd person singular of ficar in the simple past. In this sentence, ficar means something like stayed, remained, was left, or ended up.

So ficou is not just a basic was. It suggests the rake ended up on the ground or remained on the ground.

Portuguese often uses ficar when talking about a resulting state or where something ends up.

Compare:

• O ancinho ficou no chão. = The rake ended up / stayed on the ground.
• O ancinho estava no chão. = The rake was on the ground.
  This just describes its location.
• O ancinho é... would not work here, because ser is for more permanent identity or characteristics, not temporary location.

So ficou adds a sense of what happened to it.

It is the pretérito perfeito simples in Portuguese, which is usually called the simple preterite in English grammar explanations.

The infinitive is ficar.

A few forms are:

• eu fiquei
• tu ficaste
• ele/ela ficou
• nós ficámos
• vós ficastes
• eles/elas ficaram

In this sentence, ficou refers to a completed past event.

No is a contraction of:

• em
  • o = no

This contraction is standard and expected in Portuguese.

So:

• no chão = on the ground / on the floor

Even though em often gets translated as in, it can also mean on or at, depending on context.

You should think of no chão as a fixed, natural Portuguese way to say on the ground/floor.

Yes. Both ancinho and chão are masculine singular nouns.

That is why you get:

• o ancinho = the rake
• o chão = the ground / the floor

And because em + o contracts to no, you get:

• no chão

This is grammatical gender, so it is just something you learn with the noun.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• Indoors, chão often means floor
• Outdoors, it often means ground

So this sentence could mean either the rake stayed on the floor or the rake stayed on the ground, depending on the situation.

Normally, no.

In Portuguese, a singular countable noun usually needs an article or another determiner:

• o ancinho = the rake
• um ancinho = a rake
• este ancinho = this rake

So O ancinho ficou no chão sounds natural, while Ancinho ficou no chão would usually sound incomplete or unnatural except in very special cases, such as headlines, labels, or notes.

In European Portuguese, a rough English-friendly approximation is uhn-SEEN-yoo, but that is only approximate.

Useful points:

• The stress falls on ci
• nh is pronounced like the ny sound in canyon
• The final o in European Portuguese is usually a weak u-like sound

So the most important thing is hearing an-CI-nho, with nh = ny.

A rough approximation is sh-ow, but with a nasal sound that English does not really have.

Key points:

• ch in Portuguese is usually pronounced sh
• ão is a very common Portuguese nasal ending
• The ~ over the a shows nasalization

So chão is not pronounced like English chow. It is more like sh + a nasal ão sound.

Yes, and it would be correct, but the meaning changes slightly.

• O ancinho estava no chão. = The rake was on the ground.
  This simply describes its location.
• O ancinho ficou no chão. = The rake stayed / ended up on the ground.
  This suggests a result, or that it remained there.

So ficou often carries a stronger sense of what happened.

The normal, neutral order is:

• O ancinho = subject
• ficou = verb
• no chão = place

So O ancinho ficou no chão is the most natural basic order.

Portuguese can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but this version is the standard one a learner should use first.