Breakdown of Bom proveito! O jantar está na mesa.
a mesa
the table
o jantar
the dinner
bom proveito
enjoy your meal
Questions & Answers about Bom proveito! O jantar está na mesa.
Why do we say Bom proveito to mean "Enjoy your meal"?
Literally, proveito means "benefit" or "profit". By saying this, you are wishing that the food brings the person good benefit. It is the standard Portuguese equivalent to "bon appétit", said right before people start eating.
In English we just say "Dinner is on the table", but here it says O jantar. Why do we need the O?
In Portuguese, you generally use definite articles (o, a, os, as) before nouns, including meals like o pequeno-almoço (breakfast), o almoço (lunch), and o jantar (dinner). Leaving the article out here would sound unnatural to a Portuguese speaker.
Why use na instead of a word for "on" like sobre?
na is the contraction of em (which can mean in, on, or at) plus a (the). While sobre a mesa (literally "over or upon the table") is grammatically correct, it sounds quite formal. In everyday Portuguese, na mesa is the most natural way to say something is physically on the table.
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