Every Noun Has a Gender

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A substantivo (noun) is basically a person, place, or thing. When we think of nouns, we tend to think of vocabulary words. But before we go adding a bunch of Portuguese words to your vocabulary, we have to get some boring really fun stuff out of the way first…

Gender & Number

In Portuguese, every noun has a gender: masculine or feminine. If you’ve never studied a Romance language before, this may seem strange at first. Believe it or not, Old English used to use gender in a similar way, but it fell out of use over time.

And by number, we just mean singular or plural. Often, you can simply add -s to make something plural. We’ll get into more detailed rules later. 😉
Here’s why all this matters: many Portuguese words change form depending on the gender and number of the noun they’re connected to.

The first place you’ll notice this is with articles: the little words like the and a/an that often sit in front of nouns. In English these don’t change, but in Portuguese they do.

Articles

 
 
 
 
 
 
Here are the artigos definidos (definite articles): otheCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article, Singular, Masculine atheCommunity Slow audio Play audio Determiner, Singular, Feminine ostheCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article, Plural, Masculine astheCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article, Plural, Feminine

• masculine, singular: o carrothe carCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine
• masculine, plural: os carrosthe carsCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Masculine
• feminine, singular: a mesathe tableCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine
• feminine, plural: as mesasthe tablesCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Feminine

And here are the artigos indefinidos (indefinite articles): umaCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article umaaCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article  unssome, a fewCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article, Plural, Masculine umassome, a fewCommunity Slow audio Play audio Article, Plural, Feminine

• masculine, singular: um carroa carCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine
• feminine, singular: uma mesaa tableCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine
• masculine, plural: uns carrossome carsCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Masculine
• feminine, plural: umas mesassome tablesCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Feminine

Most words ending in o are masculine. Most words ending in a are feminine. (But as always, there will be exceptions!)

How Do I Use Articles in Portuguese?

Portuguese and English are two different systems. Sometimes they overlap, as in:

• Não tenho o carroI don't have the carCommunity Slow audio Play audio – referring to a specific / already mentioned car
• Ela lê um livroShe reads a bookCommunity – referring to an unspecified book

But other times they don’t, as in:

• ​Eu sou a AnaI am AnaCommunity Slow audio Play audio – before a person’s name, in most contexts
• o CanadáCanadaCommunity – before certain country names
• Sou dentistaI'm a dentistCommunity Slow audio Play audio – no article needed when stating your profession
• uns livrossome booksCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Masculine | umas vezesa few timesCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural – plural forms

Over time, small details like these will become intuitive, so don’t bother memorizing upfront. For now, just keep in mind that using articles (and using the language generally!) is about more than just translating each word.

→ For a deep dive into using definite articles, read more here.

A Quick Note About Learning Vocabulary

When we introduce individual vocabulary words throughout the Units, Shorties, etc., we will usually include the definite article, as such:
a palavrawordCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine
It’s more efficient to learn the gender at the same time you learn the noun. But to avoid lots of unnecessary repetition in vocabulary lists, the English translation will usually not include the word “the”.