No restaurante, o garçom serviu a carne com molho e alface.

At the restaurant, the waiter served the meat with sauce and lettuce.

Breakdown of No restaurante, o garçom serviu a carne com molho e alface.

• com: with
• e: and
• no: at the
• o restaurante: the restaurant

Questions & Answers about No restaurante, o garçom serviu a carne com molho e alface.

What does no restaurante mean, and why is no one word?

No is a contraction of em + o:

• em = in / at
• o = the

So em o restaurante becomes no restaurante.

This is very common in Portuguese:

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

So no restaurante means in the restaurant or at the restaurant, depending on context.

Why are there articles in o garçom and a carne?

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English.

Here:

• o garçom = the waiter
• a carne = the meat

The articles also show grammatical gender:

• garçom is masculine, so it takes o
• carne is feminine, so it takes a

Even when English might say just waiter or meat in some contexts, Portuguese often prefers the article.

How do you pronounce garçom, and what does the spelling tell me?