Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Nós pedimos peixe no restaurante.

Nós pedimos peixe no restaurante.

We order fish at the restaurant.

Breakdown of Nós pedimos peixe no restaurante.

nós

in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)

Questions & Answers about Nós pedimos peixe no restaurante.

Why does pedimos translate to "order" here, rather than "ask"?

The verb pedir literally means to ask for or to request. When you are at a restaurant or café, it is the standard verb used for ordering food and drinks. You do not need to add a separate word for "for" because pedimos already means "we ask for".

Could pedimos also mean "we ordered" in the past tense?

Yes! For regular verbs ending in -ir like pedir, the present tense and the simple past tense are exactly the same for the nós form. You have to rely on context or time words like "yesterday" to know if it means "we order" or "we ordered".

Why is there no o before peixe? Shouldn't it be pedimos o peixe?

Because the speakers are ordering fish as a general category of food, not a specific fish they were just discussing. Just like in English, you drop the article and say "we order fish" rather than "we order the fish" when referring generally to the type of food.

Why do we use no to mean "at the"?

In Portuguese, the preposition em covers both "in" and "at" in English. When combined with the masculine word for "the", which is o, it contracts into no. So no restaurante translates perfectly to "at the restaurant".