Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Afinal, o bilhete não era caro. - After all, the ticket was not expensive.

No, afinal is a "false friend"! It looks like "finally," but it actually means "after all," "in the end," or "as it turns out." If you want to say "finally" in Portuguese, you should use the word finalmente.

Why use the imperfect tense (era) here instead of the simple past (foi)?

We use the imperfect tense (era) because the sentence describes a state of being or background information in the past. You are describing what the ticket's price was like, rather than a single, completed action that happened at a specific moment.

Since prices can change, why do we use a form of the verb ser (era) instead of estar (estava)?

In Portuguese, the price or cost of an item is treated as an essential, defining characteristic of that specific item, not a temporary mood or condition. Because it describes an inherent quality of this ticket, we use ser (to be - permanent) rather than estar (to be - temporary).

Is bilhete the word used for all types of tickets in Portugal?

Yes, in Portugal, o bilhete is widely used for both transport (like trains or buses) and entertainment (like the cinema or a concert). This is good to know if you ever speak to someone from Brazil, where they usually use different words like passagem for travel and ingresso for events!