Learn about the gender of Portuguese nouns
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Michael: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Ana Clara: And how can you tell its gender? |
| Michael: In the following situation, a language learner is out buying groceries. Sasha Lee, a high school student, is at a farmer's market with her friend. She says to the person working at the stand, |
| "An orange and a fig, please." |
| Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Giovana Gomes: Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Michael: "An orange and a fig, please." |
| Giovana Gomes: Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Michael: "Only one orange and one fig?" |
| Michael: Did you notice that the nouns |
| Ana Clara: laranja |
| Michael: and |
| Ana Clara: figo |
| Michael: are preceded by different-sounding versions of the article, |
| Ana Clara: Um? |
| Michael: This is because, in Portuguese, every noun has a gender, and the article changes to match that gender. Other Romance languages have masculine and feminine nouns, too. It's a trait that comes from Latin. In fact, it's common among many languages in the Indo-European language family. But gender here doesn't mean that a word is somehow male or female. People don't think of certain objects as somehow being like a man or woman. And in most cases, the gender of a Portuguese word is based on the gender that was assigned to it in Latin. |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at both responses. |
| Do you remember how Sasha says, |
| "An orange and a fig, please." |
| Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Michael: Here, the word for "orange" is feminine and the word for "fig" is masculine. But how do we know which nouns are which? The easiest way to tell the gender of a noun is by looking at the last letter of the word. |
| The general rule is that if a noun ends with an -a, it's feminine. For example, |
| Ana Clara: a lua |
| Michael: means "moon," and |
| Ana Clara: a esposa |
| Michael: means "wife." |
| The only thing is, there are lots of exceptions. For example, |
| Ana Clara: o planeta, |
| Michael: meaning "a planet." This word is masculine even though it ends with an -a. Because there are so many exceptions to the general pattern, it's best to learn nouns together with their definite articles, like |
| Ana Clara: o |
| Michael: before a masculine word and |
| Ana Clara: a, |
| Michael: before a feminine word. Both mean something like "the" in English. |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at masculine noun endings. |
| Do you remember how Sasha's friend says. |
| "Only one orange and one fig?" |
| Ana Clara: Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Michael: Here the noun ending, -o, indicates that the word is masculine. For example, |
| Ana Clara: o esposo |
| Michael: meaning "the husband." Common masculine nouns with that ending include "the world," or |
| Ana Clara: o mundo, |
| Michael: and "the eye," or |
| Ana Clara: o olho. |
| Michael: So far we have learned that the ending, -a, for feminine nouns and the ending, -o, for masculine nouns are a fairly reliable way to determine the gender of a noun in Portuguese, even though there are some exceptions. |
| Michael: There are a few more endings than the ones mentioned above. There are many endings indicating feminine nouns, such as. |
| Ana Clara: -ade |
| Michael: and |
| Ana Clara: -ude. |
| Michael: For example, |
| Ana Clara: a universidade, a cidade |
| Michael: which mean "university" and "city. Another feminine ending is the ending |
| Ana Clara: -gem, |
| Michael: as in |
| Ana Clara: a linguagem, |
| Michael: meaning "the language." Yet another group of common feminine noun endings are |
| Ana Clara: -ção, -são, -stão, |
| Michael: And |
| Ana Clara: gião, |
| Michael: which correspond to the English endings "-tion," "-sion," "-stion," "-gion." For example, |
| Ana Clara: a opção. |
| Michael: Meaning "option." And finally, there's the noun ending, |
| Ana Clara: -cie, |
| Michael: as in |
| Ana Clara: a espécie, |
| Michael: meaning "the species." Similarly, there are some noun endings characteristic of masculine nouns. These are the endings |
| Ana Clara: -im, -om, |
| Michael: and, |
| Ana Clara: -um, |
| Michael: such as in the noun, |
| Ana Clara: o fim, |
| Michael: meaning "the end." |
| Practice Session |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then repeat after the Portuguese speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say, |
| "An orange and a fig, please." |
| Ana Clara as Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ana Clara as Sasha Lee: Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Uma laranja e um figo, por favor. |
| Michael: And how to say, |
| "Only one orange and one fig?" |
| Ana Clara as Giovana Gomes: Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ana Clara as Sasha Lee: Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Apenas uma laranja e um figo? |
| Michael: As we explained before, while there are some hints that help us to recognize a noun's gender, there are also many exceptions to the rule. Some nouns might also have a different gender depending on what they are referring to. Job titles, for example, often reveal a person's gender. For example, we will refer to a male professor as |
| Ana Clara: o professor |
| Michael: or "male professor," while "female professor" will be referred to as |
| Ana Clara: a professora. |
| Michael: However, this distinction is sometimes expressed not by the noun ending, but only the article that precedes the noun. An example of such a profession is a dentist, who will be called |
| Ana Clara: o dentista, |
| Michael: when referring to a male dentist, but |
| Ana Clara: a dentista |
| Michael: when referring to a female dentist. |
| Michael: Great job. Now you know how to use gender in Portuguese. That's all there is to it! |
| Be sure to download the lesson notes for this lesson at PortuguesePod101.com — and move onto the next lesson! |
Comments
Hide