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Os meus amigos estão ali. Encontro-os no café.

Os meus amigos estão ali. Encontro-os no café.
My friends are there. I meet them in the café.
From Lesson 67:Direct object pronouns (me, te, o, a, nos, os, as)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Os meus amigos estão ali. Encontro-os no café.

Why is there a hyphen in Encontro-os?
In European Portuguese, direct object pronouns like os (them) are attached to the end of the verb with a hyphen in simple positive sentences. Encontro means "I meet", and -os replaces os meus amigos so you don't have to repeat the phrase.
Why do we use os for "them" here?
The pronoun has to match the word it replaces. Because it replaces os meus amigos (masculine plural), we use the masculine plural pronoun os. If you were meeting female friends (as minhas amigas), you would say Encontro-as.
Why do we use estão instead of são for "are" in the first sentence?
We use the verb estar (which becomes estão for "they are") when talking about locations. Even though English just uses "are" for everything, Portuguese uses estar for where something is, and ser (são) for permanent descriptions.
Where does the word no come from in no café?
no is a mandatory combination of the word em (in/at) and the word o (the). Because café is a masculine word, you combine em + o to make no (at the).

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