O queijo coalho está na grelha.

Because está is used for location or temporary states.

Here, the cheese is located on the grill, so Portuguese uses estar:

• O queijo coalho está na grelha. = it is on the grill

If you used é, it would sound like you were defining or identifying the cheese, not saying where it is.

A useful rule:

• ser = identity, definition, permanent characteristics
• estar = location, condition, temporary state

Na is a contraction of:

• em = in/on/at
• a = the

So:

• em + a = na

That means na grelha literally works like on the grill / in the grill / at the grill, depending on the context. In this sentence, English naturally says on the grill.

You will see this kind of contraction all the time in Portuguese:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

Yes. Queijo is a masculine noun, so it takes masculine forms:

• o queijo
• um queijo
• queijo bom

In the sentence, o means the, so o queijo coalho means the queijo coalho or the coalho cheese.

The gender comes from the main noun, which here is queijo.

In Portuguese, the main noun usually comes first, and the word that classifies or describes it comes after.

So:

• queijo coalho
• vinho branco
• café gelado

English often does the opposite:

• coalho cheese
• white wine
• iced coffee

So this word order is very normal in Portuguese.

In queijo coalho, coalho is part of the name of a specific type of cheese. You can think of the whole expression as a set food name.

Grammatically, learners often understand it as a word that classifies the type of cheese. In practice, the important thing is that queijo coalho is a fixed expression in Brazilian Portuguese.

So instead of translating word by word, it is best to learn queijo coalho as one chunk.

Because grelha is a feminine noun in Portuguese, so it takes feminine articles:

• a grelha
• na grelha
• uma grelha

That is why the sentence has na grelha, not no grelha.

Remember:

• no = em + o
• na = em + a

Yes, it is understandable and correct, especially if you mean the grill grate or grilling surface.

That said, in Brazil, people might also use other words depending on what exactly they mean:

• grelha = the grate / grill surface
• churrasqueira = the barbecue grill or barbecue setup itself

So está na grelha is fine if the idea is that the cheese is sitting on the grill grate.

Yes. In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, tá is extremely common as a short form of está.

So these both work:

• O queijo coalho está na grelha. — more neutral/full form
• O queijo coalho tá na grelha. — more informal, very common in speech

For learners:

• use está in careful speech and writing
• expect to hear tá all the time in conversation

A rough pronunciation guide is:

o KAY-zhoo ko-AHL-yoo es-TA na GREL-ya

A few key sounds:

• queijo sounds roughly like KAY-zhoo
• lh in coalho and grelha is like a soft ly sound
• está has stress on the last syllable: es-TA

A more phonetic approximation:

• o queijo coalho está na grelha
• u KEI-zhu ko-A-lyu es-TA na GRE-lya

Exact pronunciation varies by region, but this is a good Brazilian approximation.

Usually, in a normal sentence like this, o is natural because you are referring to a specific cheese.

• O queijo coalho está na grelha. = natural everyday sentence

Without the article, Queijo coalho está na grelha, it can sound less complete in ordinary speech, though it might appear in:

• recipes
• headlines
• captions
• very context-heavy situations

So for learners, keeping o is the safest choice.

Yes, but the original order is the most neutral and natural.

Neutral:

• O queijo coalho está na grelha.

You could also say:

• Na grelha está o queijo coalho.

That version sounds more marked or literary, because it emphasizes the location first.

For everyday Portuguese, the original sentence is the best model:

• subject + verb + place

Literally, Portuguese em can cover several meanings that English separates into in, on, and at.

So na grelha is literally something like in/on the grill, but in natural English this sentence is best understood as on the grill because food sits on the grill surface.

This is very common when learning Portuguese: one preposition in Portuguese often matches several different prepositions in English depending on context.