O senhor pode esperar junto à passadeira, cujo sinal está avariado.

In Portugal, o senhor is a very respectful way to say you to a man (formal singular). To a woman, use a senhora. It’s common with strangers, older people, or in customer‑service contexts.

• tu = informal you (friends, family), verb in 2nd person: tu podes
• você exists in Portugal but can sound blunt or overly direct; when used, it also takes 3rd‑person verbs: você pode
• o senhor / a senhora take 3rd‑person verbs: O senhor pode / A senhora pode

Because o senhor / a senhora / você are grammatically third‑person subjects in Portuguese. So you say:

• O senhor pode
• A senhora pode
• Você pode
• But with tu (2nd person), it’s tu podes.

Yes. Portuguese allows subject pronoun drop. Pode esperar… is still politely addressed to the listener. You can also use a vocative:

• Senhor, pode esperar… (direct address)
• O senhor pode esperar… (subject pronoun; a bit more formal/explicit)

It’s a contraction: a + a = à.

• The first a is the preposition from junto a
• The second a is the feminine article of a passadeira Other useful contractions:
• a + o = ao
• a + os = aos
• a + as = às Don’t confuse à with há (from haver, “there is/are,” “ago”).

Yes, passadeira has two common meanings in Portugal:

• crosswalk (often passadeira de peões)
• treadmill (gym equipment: passadeira de corrida) Context tells you which one. For carpet/rug, you’d say tapete.

cujo/cuja/cujos/cujas means whose and it agrees with the noun that follows it (the thing possessed), not with the possessor:

• a passadeira, cujo sinal está avariado (sinal = masc. sing. → cujo)
• a passadeira, cuja luz está avariada (luz = fem. sing. → cuja)
• a passadeira, cujos sinais estão avariados (sinais = masc. pl. → cujos)
• No article after cujo: you do not say cujo o sinal. Note: cujo is felt as formal/educated.

For possession, cujo is the standard elegant solution. Alternatives are possible but clunky:

• Heavy: a passadeira, o sinal da qual está avariado
• Better: rephrase without a relative clause:
  • O sinal da passadeira está avariado.
  • A passadeira tem o sinal avariado. Using de que to mark possession is not idiomatic here.

Yes. The comma makes it non‑restrictive (just adding extra info about the crosswalk):

• With comma: identifying a specific crosswalk already in mind: “the crosswalk, whose signal is broken”
• Without comma: restrictive, selecting which crosswalk among others: “the crosswalk whose signal is broken” Both are grammatical; the nuance differs.

In Portugal, sinal is a general “sign/signal.” At crossings, the actual traffic light is semáforo (or sinal luminoso). So you might say:

• … a passadeira, cujo semáforo está avariado. If you mean the audible beeper for visually impaired pedestrians, you might specify sinal sonoro.

Yes—using pode makes a request sound polite/indirect. Other polite options in Portugal:

• Poderia esperar…? (more tentative)
• Faça favor de esperar… / Se faz favor, espere…
• É favor esperar… (very instructional)
• Espere, por favor, … (formal imperative)

Avariado agrees with sinal (masculine singular). If the possessed noun were feminine, you’d get avariada:

• cuja luz está avariada Likewise, cujo/cuja/cujos/cujas follows the gender/number of the possessed noun.

Yes. Common, more neutral rewrites:

• O senhor pode esperar junto à passadeira; o sinal da passadeira está avariado.
• O senhor pode esperar junto à passadeira com o semáforo avariado.
• Using a locative relative: … junto à passadeira onde o semáforo está avariado. (acceptable because it locates the broken signal at that crosswalk, though it’s less precise about possession than cujo)