O meu pai não gosta de maionese, por isso come o camarão sem molho.

In European Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article with possessives, so o meu pai is the normal way to say my father.

• o meu pai = my father
• a minha mãe = my mother
• o meu carro = my car

In Brazilian Portuguese, dropping the article is more common, but in Portugal the article is usually expected in everyday speech.

In Portuguese, não normally goes directly before the verb it negates.

So:

• não gosta = does not like
• não come = does not eat
• não quer = does not want

That is the standard word order. Unlike English, you do not need an extra verb like does.

Because the verb gostar requires the preposition de.

So you say:

• gostar de café = to like coffee
• gostar de música = to like music
• gostar de maionese = to like mayonnaise

This is a very important pattern to remember:

• Eu gosto de chocolate.
• Ela gosta de praia.
• O meu pai não gosta de maionese.

Here maionese is being used in a general sense, meaning mayonnaise as a food in general, so no article is needed.

• não gosta de maionese = he does not like mayonnaise

You may sometimes hear an article in other contexts, but with food and general preferences, leaving it out is very common and natural.

Compare:

• Gosto de café. = I like coffee.
• Não gosto de açúcar. = I do not like sugar.

Por isso means therefore, because of that, or more naturally in many cases, so.

In this sentence:

• O meu pai não gosta de maionese, por isso come o camarão sem molho.
• My father does not like mayonnaise, so he eats the shrimp without sauce.

It connects cause and result:

• cause: he does not like mayonnaise
• result: he eats the shrimp without sauce

You could sometimes use então, but por isso is more clearly logical here.

• por isso = for that reason / therefore
• então = then / so

In this sentence, por isso works very well because it explicitly shows consequence.

• Não gosta de maionese, por isso come... = He does not like mayonnaise, so he eats...

Então is also common in speech, but por isso sounds a bit more precise.

Portuguese verbs usually show the subject clearly, so the subject pronoun is often omitted.

Here:

• come = he/she eats or you eat (formal)

Because the sentence already mentions o meu pai, we know who is eating.

So Portuguese often avoids repeating the pronoun:

• O meu pai não gosta de maionese, por isso come...

Not:

• O meu pai não gosta de maionese, por isso ele come...

Using ele is possible, but unnecessary here.

Grammatically, o camarão is singular and literally means the shrimp or the prawn. In real usage, the singular can sometimes refer to the dish or item being eaten, not necessarily just one individual shrimp.

Depending on context, it could mean:

• the shrimp
• the prawn
• the shrimp dish

If you wanted to be clearly plural, you would say:

• os camarões = the shrimps / prawns

Also, in Portugal, camarão often corresponds to prawn in British English, though shrimp is still a useful translation for learners.

Sem means without, and when talking about something in a general or non-specific way, Portuguese often does not use the article.

So:

• sem molho = without sauce
• sem açúcar = without sugar
• sem sal = without salt

If you said sem o molho, it would usually mean without the sauce, referring to a specific sauce already identified in the conversation.

So the difference is:

• sem molho = without sauce, generally
• sem o molho = without the sauce, a specific one

Not exactly. Maionese is a specific kind of sauce: mayonnaise. Molho is the general word for sauce.

So the sentence suggests that the shrimp is served with some sauce, probably mayonnaise or a mayonnaise-based sauce, and because the father does not like mayonnaise, he eats it without sauce.

Vocabulary:

• maionese = mayonnaise
• molho = sauce

Yes. This is the present tense, and here it most naturally expresses a general fact or usual behaviour.

• não gosta = does not like
• come = eats

So the sentence sounds like a regular preference and its consequence:

• he does not like mayonnaise
• so he eats shrimp without sauce

Portuguese, like English, often uses the present tense for habits and general truths.

In connected European Portuguese speech, several sounds get reduced, especially unstressed vowels. A learner may hear something closer to this:

• O meu pai → roughly u meu pai
• não gosta de maionese → the de is very light
• por isso → roughly pur íssu
• come o camarão → may sound close to com’ u camarão
• sem molho → sẽ molhu

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• não has a nasal sound, not a clear final n
• gosta de often sounds very connected
• final o in European Portuguese often sounds like u
• lh in molho is like the lli in million

So the written sentence is straightforward, but the spoken version may sound more compressed than you expect.

This is the normal and natural order.

• O meu pai = subject
• não gosta de maionese = first statement
• por isso = connector
• come o camarão sem molho = result

Portuguese is fairly flexible, but this version is clear and idiomatic. For example, you could also say:

• Como o meu pai não gosta de maionese, come o camarão sem molho.

That means:

• Since my father does not like mayonnaise, he eats the shrimp without sauce.

But the original sentence is simpler and very natural for learners to use.