We had a sentence in one of our exercises:
Chegámos agora porque nos despachámos mais cedo
The translation underneath says
We came now because we finished earlier.
Google translate doesn’t translate despachámos in any way that is even close to finished, though.
Any ideas?
@pinnih Using the translator on this site it translated as “we dispatched” which is what I was guessing it meant. 
Yes, that’s my intuitive translation, which I can imagine also could mean we left earlier.
But the Practice Portuguese translation says: we finished earlier.
The verb despachar has several meanings and subtleties depending on context.
My 501 Verbs edition cites …to send (off), to fire ( a gun), to get rid of, (-se) to hurry (up), to get going.
So the sentence you queried “Chegámos agora porque nos despachámos mais cedo” probably best translates as " We arrived now because we hurried earlier"
Think of the English word “dispatch” which in context can mean “hurry”. You can say “do that with dispatch” when instructing someone to carry out a task quickly.
@pinnih, like @mac.cummings said, you can think of it as hurrying up and getting something done/being available earlier than planned. Dispatched is a suitable translation in other contexts (e.g. dispatching an order = despachar uma encomenda).
hi Joseph. I was ready to write a topic about this to.
I am confused because the translation under the flash card for despachar says to hurry, speed up, do quickly, dispatch
Am I correct to say that the translation changes with a clitic pronoun
Despachar = is al of the above
Despachar-se = to finish/ finished up
Either way, the translation “finish up” never came up on the flash card so for me this is confusing. Also i have the same sentence in my flash cards as pinnih and was also confused by Chegámos meaning we came. Is it wrong to use nós viemos ???
@andy_vander_vlist, thanks for your comments. Even with a clitic pronoun (which is how this verb is most often used), all those translations are applicable. With words that have a variety of translation options depending on context, it’s possible that flash cards are not completely exhaustive - still, “finish up” was just added to the list of meanings, as it is a rather significant omission. The translation of “chegámos” was also adapted to “arrived” to minimize confusion. “Viemos” would’ve also been fine to use
Thank you very much Joseph.