Breakdown of O empregado vem ter connosco à mesa.
a mesa
the table
vir
to come
o empregado
the employee; the waiter
Questions & Answers about O empregado vem ter connosco à mesa.
What does ter (to have) mean in the phrase vem ter connosco?
In Portuguese, the phrase vir ter com (or ir ter com) is a fixed idiom that means "to come meet" or "to come over to" someone. Even though ter usually means "to have," it completely loses that meaning here. Together with connosco (with us), the whole chunk vem ter connosco translates smoothly to "comes over to us."
Could I just say vem a nós to mean "comes to us"?
Why does the sentence use à mesa instead of na mesa?
If you used na mesa (a contraction of the preposition em + a), it would mean the waiter is coming to stand physically on top of the table! The preposition a (contracted with the article a to form à) is used to mean "at the table," describing the area right next to it.
I thought empregado meant "employee." How do we know it means "waiter" here?
You're right that empregado generally means "employee." However, in a café or restaurant context, it is a very common shorthand for empregado de mesa (literally "table employee"), which is the standard term for a waiter in European Portuguese. The phrase à mesa later in the sentence provides the necessary context clue.
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