O caixa não tinha troco, então paguei com moedas.

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Breakdown of O caixa não tinha troco, então paguei com moedas.

• não: not
• ter: to have
• com: with

Questions & Answers about O caixa não tinha troco, então paguei com moedas.

What does o caixa mean here?

Here, o caixa most naturally means the cashier.

In Brazilian Portuguese, caixa can refer to:

• the cashier (the person),
• the checkout/register area,
• or in other contexts, a box.

In this sentence, because of não tinha troco (didn’t have change), the most likely meaning is the cashier didn’t have change.

Why is it o caixa if caixa ends in -a?

Because noun gender in Portuguese is not always predictable from the ending.

Even though many -a nouns are feminine, some are masculine in certain meanings. Here, o caixa is a normal expression in Brazil for the cashier or the checkout/register.

A useful thing to remember is that caixa changes meaning depending on gender and context:

• a caixa = the box
• o caixa = the cashier / checkout / register

Also, if you are specifically talking about a female cashier, many speakers say a caixa.

Why is não before tinha?