Breakdown of O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
Questions & Answers about O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
O is the masculine singular definite article in Portuguese, equivalent to the in English.
- O cliente = the customer / the client
- Cliente on its own would sound like just saying customer without the, which is usually odd here.
In this specific sentence, you are talking about a particular customer, so you normally must use the article: O cliente está satisfeito…
You can drop the article in headlines or notes (e.g. on a restaurant ticket), but in normal speech O is expected.
Portuguese uses:
- estar for temporary states or conditions
- ser for permanent or defining characteristics
Being satisfied with a particular dinner is a temporary state, so you use estar:
- O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
The client is (currently) satisfied with the dinner.
If you said O cliente é satisfeito, it would sound like he is a satisfied person in general (as a character trait), and even then it is not a very usual phrasing in European Portuguese. For this meaning, está satisfeito is the natural choice.
Adjectives in Portuguese agree in gender and number with the noun.
- cliente can be masculine or feminine:
- o cliente (male customer)
- a cliente (female customer)
The adjective satisfeito changes to match:
- Male customer:
O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar. - Female customer:
A cliente está satisfeita com o jantar.
Plurals:
- Male or mixed group: Os clientes estão satisfeitos…
- All female group: As clientes estão satisfeitas…
In Portuguese, certain adjectives naturally take specific prepositions. With satisfeito, the normal preposition for the thing you are satisfied about is com:
- estar satisfeito com algo = to be satisfied with something
So:
- O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
The client is satisfied with the dinner.
Using de (satisfeito de) for this meaning is not standard in European Portuguese; com is the natural choice here.
In standard written Portuguese, the preposition com does not contract with the definite article o:
- com + o = com o
- com + a = com a
- com + os = com os
- com + as = com as
So com o jantar is exactly the correct standard form.
In fast, informal speech, Portuguese speakers may pronounce com o jantar in a reduced way (sounding a bit like c’mo jantar), but in writing it stays com o.
Portuguese normally uses the definite article with specific, concrete things:
- com o jantar = with the dinner (the particular dinner we are talking about)
You can say com jantar in some special contexts (e.g. a menu description: Quarto com jantar incluído – room with dinner included), but when you are talking about a specific event tonight, com o jantar is the natural form.
So for this sentence, com o jantar is the idiomatic choice.
The normal, neutral word order is:
- [Subject] O cliente
- [Verb] está
- [Complement] satisfeito com o jantar
→ O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
Other orders are possible but sound marked, heavy, or poetic:
- Está o cliente satisfeito com o jantar.
Very formal / literary, with emphasis on está. - O cliente está, com o jantar, satisfeito.
Stylistic, maybe in written emphasis.
O cliente com o jantar está satisfeito is not wrong grammatically, but it sounds awkward and unnatural in everyday European Portuguese. Stick to O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
Cliente covers both senses:
- Someone who pays for a product or service in a restaurant, shop, hotel, etc. → customer
- Someone who pays a professional like a lawyer, architect, or consultant → client
In a restaurant in Portugal, staff will naturally refer to diners as clientes:
- Os clientes estão satisfeitos?
Are the customers satisfied?
You need to put everything in the plural:
- O cliente → Os clientes
- está → estão (3rd person plural of estar)
- satisfeito → satisfeitos (masculine plural)
So:
- Os clientes estão satisfeitos com o jantar.
If all the customers are female:
- As clientes estão satisfeitas com o jantar.
Jantar is both a noun and a verb:
Noun – o jantar = the dinner
- O jantar está pronto. – The dinner is ready.
Verb – jantar = to have dinner / to dine
- Vamos jantar às oito. – We are going to have dinner at eight.
In O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar, jantar is clearly a noun because it has the article o before it.
Very roughly (European Portuguese):
- O → like oo in food, short: [u]
- cliente → [kli-ÉN-tɨ] (final -e is a weak sound, like a very short uh)
- está → [ʃ-TA] (initial e is almost swallowed; tá stressed)
- satisfeito → [sɐ-tiʃ-FÊI-tu]
- s in satis like English s
- feito similar to fay-too
- com → [kõ], with nasal om (like French bon)
- o → again [u]
- jantar → [ʒɐn-TAR]
- j like the s in measure
- final r is soft or almost not pronounced in much of Portugal
All together, something like:
- [u kliˈẽtɨ ʃˈta sɐtiʃˈfejtu kõ u ʒɐ̃ˈtaɾ]
The main stresses are on -en- in cliente, -tá in está, -fei- in satisfeito, and -tar in jantar.
Yes:
- O cliente está satisfeito com o jantar.
- Ele está satisfeito com o jantar. – He is satisfied with the dinner.
In Portuguese you can often drop subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context:
- Está satisfeito com o jantar.
Literally: Is satisfied with the dinner.
This would normally be understood as He is satisfied with the dinner, if you were already talking about o cliente or ele just before it.
Yes, you can say:
- O cliente está contente com o jantar.
Both satisfeito and contente often translate as happy / satisfied, but there is a nuance:
- satisfeito – more about being satisfied, having expectations met, feeling that the quality/quantity was good.
- contente – more about being glad / pleased / happy emotionally.
In a restaurant context, está satisfeito com o jantar is very common and slightly more focused on the food and service meeting expectations. Está contente com o jantar sounds a bit more like he is simply happy with it.