O gênero dos substantivos - Gender of nouns

In English, objects, places and animals fall under the category of "it". Their gender is neutral.

In Portuguese, objects, places and animals are assigned a GENDER. They will be either feminine or masculine ("ele" ou "ela"). Sounds crazy? Don't worry, you'll quickly get the hang of it.

A great idea is memorizing the noun AND gender whenever you are memorizing vocabulary.

For example:

MESA

Memorize: A MESA (the table)

Eu amo aquela mesa, mas ela é muito cara. (I love that table, but it is too expensive.)

COMPUTADOR

Memorize: O COMPUTADOR (the computer)

O computador é uma invenção maravilhosa. Ele é essencial para a vida moderna. (The computer is a wonderful invention. It is essential to modern life).

As a rule of thumb, nouns ending in "a" are feminine, and nouns ending in "o" are masculine, but there are plenty of exceptions - and also plenty of other letters ending nouns, such as in "computador".

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Words referring to female people or animals usually end in "a", and words referring to male people or animals end in "o". 

EXEMPLOS: 

o amigo (the friend - male)

a amiga (the friend - female)

o aluno (the student - male)

a aluna (the student - female)

o gato (the cat - male)

a gata (the cat - female)

o cachorro (the dog -male)

a cachorra (the dog - female)

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When we are talking about things or places, how do we know the gender?

Use the rule of thumb: if it ends in "o", consider it masculine, if it ends in "a", consider it feminine.

a sala (the room)
o escritório (the office)
a biblioteca (the library)
a caneta (the pen)
o salário (the salary)
o carro (the car)

There are many exceptions to this rule, such as:

o sofá (the couch)
o cinema (the movie theater)
o dia (the day)
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a lição (the lesson)
a profissão (the profession)
a foto (the photo)


There are also many nouns that finish with other letters (not just "o" and "a"):

o motor (the motor)
o carnaval (the carnival)
a cidade (the city)
o abacaxi (the pineapple)


What do we do?

We'll get back to this in a future lesson. For now just make sure that whenever you memorize a noun, you also memorize its gender.

If you are really curious, go to Sonia Portuguese and read more about nouns here.

ADVANCED STUDENTS: Find more about gender of nouns on Gramática On-line and Brasil Escola.