A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada.

Both nouns are feminine singular, so they take the article a.

• a garçonete = the waitress
• a cliente = the customer / the female customer

A few useful notes:

• garçonete is specifically a female server/waitress.
• cliente can refer to a man or a woman, but the article shows the gender:
  • o cliente = the male customer
  • a cliente = the female customer

So the article is doing important work here.

Perguntou is the simple past (also called the preterite) of perguntar = to ask.

• ela perguntou = she asked

In this sentence, it tells us that the asking happened at a completed moment in the past.

Compare:

• pergunta = asks / is asking
• perguntava = used to ask / was asking
• perguntou = asked

Here, se means whether / if in an indirect question.

So:

• perguntou se... = asked whether... / asked if...

This is different from se meaning if in a condition.

In this sentence:

• A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria...
• The waitress asked if/whether the customer would like...

It introduces the content of what was asked, without using a direct quote.

Because this is reported speech, not a direct question.

The sentence does not quote the waitress’s exact words. Instead, it reports them:

• She asked if the customer would like...

That is a normal statement sentence in Portuguese, so it ends with a period, not a question mark.

Compare:

• Direct question: A senhora gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada?
• Reported speech: A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada.

Gostaria is from gostar, but in this kind of sentence it often works like would like.

So:

• gostaria de água = would like some water

It is very common in polite situations such as restaurants, stores, hotels, and customer service.

Even though gostar literally means to like, gostaria de is often used idiomatically as a polite way to ask what someone wants.

Because gostaria sounds more polite and formal.

In service situations, Brazilian Portuguese often uses softer, more courteous wording.

• quer? = do you want?
  This is correct, but more direct.
• queria? = wanted / would want
  This can also be polite in some contexts.
• gostaria? = would like?
  This is especially common for polite service language.

So A cliente gostaria de... sounds natural and courteous, like English Would you like... ?

Because gostar normally takes the preposition de.

So:

• gostar de água
• gostar de limonada

In the conditional form:

• gostaria de água
• gostaria de limonada

Since the sentence gives two options, the preposition is repeated:

• de água com gelo ou de limonada

This is very natural and clear.

Yes, it often can be omitted:

• gostaria de água com gelo ou limonada

That would still be understandable and natural.

However, repeating de:

• gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada

makes the structure more balanced and sometimes a little clearer. Both are possible, but the version with both de sounds very polished.

Literally, it means water with ice.

In natural English, that is often translated as:

• ice water
• water with ice
• sometimes iced water

In Brazilian Portuguese, com gelo simply tells you the drink is served with ice cubes.

Because the sentence is continuing the same structure after gostaria de.

Think of it as:

• gostaria de água com gelo
• gostaria de limonada

When combining them:

• gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada

So the de belongs to the verb phrase, not to the noun by itself.

Usually, yes: limonada refers to a lemon or lime-based drink, and in Brazil it often corresponds to what English speakers would broadly call lemonade.

One cultural note: in Brazil, drinks called limonada are often made with lime, because Brazilian Portuguese commonly uses limão for fruits that English may distinguish as lime or lemon depending on the variety.

So the translation lemonade is fine, but the exact fruit can differ from what an English speaker might imagine.

Portuguese can use either a noun or a pronoun, depending on style and clarity.

This sentence says:

• A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria...

That is clear and explicit.

You could also say:

• A garçonete perguntou se ela gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada.

But ela could sometimes be ambiguous, because both garçonete and cliente are feminine. Repeating a cliente avoids confusion.

A likely direct version would be:

• A senhora gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada?

or more casually:

• Você gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada?

The original sentence is the reported version:

• A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada.

So the grammar shifts from a direct question to an indirect one introduced by se.

In Brazilian Portuguese, garçonete is pronounced approximately like:

• gar-soh-NET-chee

A few pronunciation notes:

• the ç sounds like s
• the final te in Brazilian Portuguese often sounds like chee
• the stress falls on ne: garçoNEte

So it is not pronounced like English garconette with a hard t.

The accent in água shows the stressed syllable and helps mark correct pronunciation.

It is pronounced roughly:

• AH-gwa

The stress is on the first syllable: Água.

Accents in Portuguese are very important because they often show:

• where the stress goes
• sometimes the vowel quality
• sometimes a distinction between words

It sounds neutral to somewhat formal, mainly because of gostaria.

The overall sentence is very natural in a restaurant or service context. It is not overly stiff, but it is definitely more polite than a very casual version.

For example:

• A garçonete perguntou se a cliente queria água com gelo ou limonada.
  More neutral / everyday.
• A garçonete perguntou se a cliente gostaria de água com gelo ou de limonada.
  More polite / polished.

So the original is a very good example of courteous Brazilian Portuguese.