Breakdown of A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes.
Questions & Answers about A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes.
A is the definite article (the), and uma is the indefinite article (a / one).
- A chef vegetariana suggests a specific person the speaker and listener can identify, or a type in a more general, descriptive sense (e.g. in a story: A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes todos os dias – The vegetarian chef cooks vegetable curry every day).
- Uma chef vegetariana would introduce her as new, non‑specific information: a vegetarian chef (one among others).
Both are grammatically correct; which one you use depends on whether the chef is already known/specific or newly introduced/unspecified.
You know the chef is female from the words around it:
- The article A is the feminine singular form of o/a (the).
- The adjective vegetariana is feminine singular (masculine would be vegetariano).
So even though chef itself does not change form, the surrounding words mark grammatical gender:
- A chef vegetariana → female
- O chef vegetariano → male
In Portuguese, adjectives normally come after the noun:
- chef vegetariana – literally chef vegetarian
- caril de legumes delicioso – delicious vegetable curry
You can sometimes put adjectives before the noun (especially for emphasis or certain common adjectives), but vegetariana chef would be unusual and sound wrong here. For describing professions with adjectives, the default is:
[article] + [profession] + [adjective]
A médica portuguesa, O professor alemão, A chef vegetariana
Not exactly.
- cozinheiro / cozinheira = cook, someone who cooks (can be at home, in a school canteen, etc.).
- chef (or chefe de cozinha) = head chef, often with professional or high‑status connotations, especially in restaurants.
So:
- A cozinheira vegetariana – a vegetarian cook (maybe at home or in some workplace).
- A chef vegetariana – a professional chef, usually implying a higher level or a specific role in a kitchen hierarchy.
Both are correct words; the choice depends on the nuance you want.
Yes, in European Portuguese you will see both:
- A chef vegetariana – using the international culinary term chef.
- A chefe vegetariana – using the Portuguese word chefe (chief, boss, head; here: head of the kitchen).
In modern food contexts, chef (without final e) is very common, especially in media and restaurants. Grammatically, both work the same way: the gender is shown by a and vegetariana.
Here, cozinha is a verb form, not the noun:
- Verb: cozinhar = to cook.
- (Ela) cozinha = she cooks / she is cooking.
- Noun: cozinha = kitchen or cuisine.
- Na cozinha = in the kitchen.
In the sentence A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes, the structure is:
- A chef vegetariana – subject (the vegetarian chef)
- cozinha – verb (cooks)
- caril de legumes – object (vegetable curry)
Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending shows the person.
- (Ela) cozinha caril de legumes.
The form cozinha already tells you it is ela / ele / você (3rd person singular).
In the full sentence, A chef vegetariana is the explicit subject, so using ela as well would be redundant:
- ✅ A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes.
- ❌ A chef vegetariana ela cozinha caril de legumes. (incorrect)
In Portuguese, the simple present (cozinha) can cover both:
- habitual/general: A chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes.
→ The vegetarian chef cooks vegetable curry (regularly/as a habit). - right now (especially with context): Agora a chef vegetariana cozinha caril de legumes.
→ Right now the vegetarian chef is cooking vegetable curry.
If you really want to emphasize right now in European Portuguese, you often use:
- Está a cozinhar caril de legumes. – She is cooking vegetable curry (now).
But cozinha alone is very common and natural.
Caril can be used as:
- A mass noun (curry in general, an unspecified amount):
- cozinha caril de legumes – cooks vegetable curry (in general).
- A countable dish (one curry dish):
- cozinha um caril de legumes – cooks a vegetable curry (one curry dish).
In your sentence, caril is being used in the more general sense (what she cooks), so leaving out the article is natural. Adding um focuses more on one specific dish or portion.
Caril is the European Portuguese word used for:
- the dish (a curry)
- the sauce/spice mixture used in such dishes
It corresponds closely to English curry. The structure caril de legumes is like vegetable curry or curry made with vegetables.
In European Portuguese you will normally see caril, not curry, in standard writing, though curry may appear in menus or branding.
Both structures are possible, but they have slightly different feels:
- caril de legumes
- Literally curry of vegetables.
- Standard, usual way to name a type of curry: caril de frango, caril de camarão, caril de legumes.
- caril com legumes
- Literally curry with vegetables.
- Emphasizes that the curry includes vegetables, but sounds a bit less like a standard dish name.
So for naming the dish type, caril de legumes is the most natural.
In European Portuguese, legumes usually means vegetables in general, especially the kind you eat with a main dish (carrots, peas, green beans, etc.).
- English legumes (technical word) ≈ Portuguese leguminosas (beans, lentils, chickpeas…).
- Everyday PT‑PT legumes ≈ English vegetables.
So caril de legumes is best understood as vegetable curry, not just curry of beans/pulses.
Yes, but the meaning shifts a bit:
- caril de legumes – specifies the main ingredient: vegetables.
- caril vegetariano – specifies the type of diet: a curry that is vegetarian (may or may not be only vegetables; could have tofu, seitan, etc.).
Both are correct; caril de legumes is more precise about what is in it, while caril vegetariano focuses on it being suitable for vegetarians.
You would change the article and the adjective to masculine; chef itself stays the same:
- O chef vegetariano cozinha caril de legumes.
- O – masculine singular the
- vegetariano – masculine singular adjective
Everything else in the sentence remains unchanged.