Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O empregado de mesa traz o caril rapidamente.

de often links two nouns in a general way: empregado de mesa = “table employee” (a type of employee).
da = de + a (“of the”) and normally refers to one specific thing: da mesa = “of the table”.

Here it’s not about a particular table (e.g. “of the table near the door”), but about the job type: the employee of table service. That’s why it stays de mesa, not da mesa.

What gender is empregado de mesa? How would I say “waitress”?

empregado de mesa is masculine:

o empregado de mesa = the (male) waiter

To talk about a woman, you change the noun to the feminine form:

a empregada de mesa = the (female) waitress

In practice, people often just say:

o empregado / a empregada when it’s clear you’re talking about restaurant staff.

Can I drop de mesa and just say O empregado traz o caril rapidamente?

Yes, you can. It’s still correct and will usually be understood as “The waiter brings the curry quickly,” especially if the context is clearly a café or restaurant.

However:

o empregado by itself literally just means “the employee” or “the worker”.
o empregado de mesa specifically means “the waiter” (table staff).

So de mesa makes the role more explicit, but it’s not always necessary in context.

Why is the verb traz used here? What verb is this?

traz is the 3rd person singular present of the verb trazer (“to bring”):

eu trago – I bring
tu trazes – you bring (informal singular)
ele / ela / você traz – he / she / you bring
nós trazemos – we bring
eles / elas / vocês trazem – they / you (plural) bring

So O empregado de mesa traz o caril rapidamente =
“The waiter brings the curry quickly.”

trazer is irregular; that’s why it’s traz, not something like traza.

What’s the difference between trazer and levar?

Both can translate as “to bring / to take”, but the difference is the direction relative to the speaker or reference point.

trazer = to bring towards the speaker / the person we’re focusing on.
- From the kitchen to the customer: O empregado traz o caril.
levar = to take away / carry away from the speaker / reference point.
- From the table to the kitchen: O empregado leva os pratos. – “The waiter takes the plates away.”

In this sentence, the action is bringing the curry to the customer, so traz (from trazer) is appropriate.

Can traz mean both “is bringing” and “brings” (like English present simple vs present continuous)?

Yes. The Portuguese present tense is more flexible than in English.

O empregado de mesa traz o caril rapidamente can mean:

He is bringing the curry quickly (right now / in this scene), or
He brings the curry quickly (a general or repeated action).

Context (and sometimes additional time expressions) usually tells you whether it’s a current ongoing action or a habitual/general statement.

What exactly is caril, and why is it o caril?

caril is the European Portuguese word for “curry” (the dish or sauce). In Portugal you’ll see things like:

caril de frango – chicken curry
caril de camarão – prawn curry

It is masculine, so we use the article o:

o caril – the curry

You can say um caril (“a curry”) in some contexts, especially in menus or informal speech, but o caril in this sentence probably refers to a specific curry that has been ordered.

Is caril countable in Portuguese, like “a curry” and “two curries”?

Yes, it can be countable, though it often behaves more like a dish name.

Singular: um caril – a curry
Plural: dois caris – two curries

But in many real situations people will just say:

Vou comer caril. – I’m going to eat curry.
Gosto de caril. – I like curry.

In those cases it’s used more like a mass noun (“curry in general”).

Why does the sentence use rapidamente, and where can this adverb go in the sentence?

rapidamente means “quickly / rapidly”. It’s an adverb formed from the adjective rápido.

In Portuguese, adverbs like rapidamente can usually be placed:

After the verb’s object (as in the original):
- O empregado de mesa traz o caril rapidamente.
Between the verb and the object:
- O empregado de mesa traz rapidamente o caril.
At the start of the sentence for emphasis:
- Rapidamente, o empregado de mesa traz o caril.

All three are grammatically correct; the original order (verb + object + adverb) is very natural and common.

Could I use depressa instead of rapidamente? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

O empregado de mesa traz o caril depressa.

depressa also means “quickly / fast”, and it’s very common in everyday European Portuguese.

Subtle difference:

rapidamente sounds a bit more formal or neutral.
depressa is more colloquial, very frequent in speech.

Both are perfectly correct in this sentence.

Why do we have o empregado de mesa and o caril, when in English I might just say “Waiter brings curry quickly” without “the”?

Portuguese uses the definite article (o / a / os / as) more often than English.

In this sentence:

o empregado de mesa – the waiter
o caril – the curry

Even when English drops “the”, Portuguese usually keeps the article if we are talking about a specific, identified person or thing (the particular waiter and the particular curry in this context).

If you removed the articles:

Empregado de mesa traz caril rapidamente

it would sound very odd or ungrammatical in standard Portuguese. The articles are needed here.