A comida estava horrível.

A is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

So a comida = the food.

In Portuguese, articles are used more often than in English. You can sometimes say just comida, but a comida sounds more natural when you are talking about a specific food or meal that both speaker and listener understand from context.

In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender. Comida is a feminine noun, so it takes feminine words with it:

• a comida
• a comida horrível

This is grammatical gender, not biological gender. Food is not female in a real-world sense; the noun is just treated as feminine in the language.

Portuguese often uses estar for temporary states or conditions, and ser for more essential or permanent characteristics.

So:

• A comida estava horrível. = the food was horrible on that occasion / in that situation
• A comida era horrível. can sound more like a general description, depending on context

With food, estar is very common when talking about how it was at the time you ate it: too salty, cold, horrible, delicious, etc.

Estava is the imperfect past of estar.

The imperfect is often used for:

• descriptions in the past
• ongoing background situations
• states or conditions in the past

Here, estava horrível describes the condition of the food in the past.

Conjugation of estar in the imperfect:

• eu estava
• você/ele/ela estava
• nós estávamos
• vocês/eles/elas estavam

Esteve is the preterite form of estar, while estava is the imperfect.

Very roughly:

• estava = was, in a descriptive/background sense
• esteve = was, in a more completed/event-like sense

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, when describing how food tasted or seemed, estava sounds more natural:

• A comida estava horrível.

A comida esteve horrível is much less natural in this context.

Not all Portuguese adjectives change form for masculine and feminine.

Horrível is an adjective with the same form for both genders in the singular:

• o filme horrível
• a comida horrível

Only the article and noun show the feminine here. The adjective stays horrível.

But in the plural, it does change:

• as comidas horríveis
• os filmes horríveis

In Portuguese, adjectives often come after the noun:

• a comida horrível
• um carro caro
• uma casa bonita

That is the normal position for many descriptive adjectives.

Sometimes adjectives can come before the noun, but that often changes the tone or emphasis. In this sentence, a horrível comida is possible in a literary or dramatic style, but it is not the most neutral everyday wording.

A helpful Brazilian Portuguese approximation is:

o-REE-veew or o-HEE-veew, depending on accent and how carefully someone is speaking.

A few important points:

• The h is silent.
• The stress falls on rí because of the accent mark: hor-RÍ-vel.
• The final l in Brazilian Portuguese often sounds like a w-like sound.

So a common Brazilian pronunciation is close to o-HEE-veew.

The accent mark in í shows where the stress goes.

So you stress rí:

• hor-RÍ-vel

Without that accent, a learner might guess the wrong stress pattern. Written accents in Portuguese are very useful because they often tell you exactly how to stress the word.

Yes, depending on context.

Comida can mean:

• food in general
• a meal
• the food that was served

So A comida estava horrível could refer to:

• the food overall
• a particular meal
• what was served at a restaurant, party, house, etc.

Context tells you which is meant.

Yes, if you specifically mean the dinner.

Compare:

• A comida estava horrível. = The food was horrible.
• O jantar estava horrível. = The dinner was horrible.

Comida is broader. Jantar is specifically dinner. If you are talking about the whole dinner experience or dinner meal, jantar may be more precise.

Yes, it is completely natural.

A comida estava horrível. is a normal, everyday way to say that the food was awful.

Other natural variations include:

• A comida estava muito ruim. = The food was very bad.
• A comida estava péssima. = The food was terrible.
• A comida estava horrenda. = The food was horrendous.

Among these, horrível is common and strong, but still very natural.

If you wanted to make it plural, you would change the article, noun, verb, and adjective as needed:

• As comidas estavam horríveis.

Breakdown:

• a → as
• comida → comidas
• estava → estavam
• horrível → horríveis

This means The foods were horrible or The dishes were horrible, depending on context.