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Os sapatos estão ao lado da porta.

Os sapatos estão ao lado da porta.
The shoes are next to the door.
From Lesson 30:Prepositions of place (ao lado de, em frente de...)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Os sapatos estão ao lado da porta.

Why does the sentence use da porta instead of de porta?
The preposition phrase for "next to" is ao lado de. However, in Portuguese, you almost always need to include the word "the" before nouns. Because the word for door is feminine (a porta), the preposition de merges with a to form the contraction da.
What does the word ao mean in the phrase ao lado?
Just like da is a combination of de and a, the word ao is a combination of a (meaning "to" or "at") and o (meaning "the"). The word lado means "side", so the full phrase ao lado de literally translates to "at the side of".
Why do we use estão for "are" here instead of são?
Portuguese has two verbs for "to be", and they have different jobs. We use the verb estar (which becomes estão for "they") to talk about temporary states and the physical location of movable objects like shoes. You use the other verb, ser, for permanent characteristics or identities.

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