How to tell the gender of nouns in Brazilian Portuguese?

In Brazilian Portuguese, many nouns will end in -o when they refer to a male person or animal and -a if they refer to a female person or animal. The -o version is grammatically masculine, while the -a version is grammatically feminine. Here are some examples:

There are a few other endings that are commonly used for gendered pairs as well:

• -ão / -ã

  Animate masculine nouns ending in -ão can be made feminine by replacing -ão with -ã:

  Masculine	Feminine
  irmão Translation: brother	irmã Translation: sister
  cidadão Translation: (male) citizen	cidadã Translation: (female) citizen
  alemão Translation: German male	alemã Translation: German female

• -s, -r / -sa, -ra

  Animate masculine nouns ending in -r or -s can be made feminine by adding -a to the masculine form. For example:

  Masculine	Feminine
  inglês Translation: English male	inglesa Translation: English female
  francês Translation: French male	francesa Translation: French female
  professor Translation: (male) teacher	professora Translation: (female) teacher
  pintor Translation: (male) painter	pintora Translation: (female) painter

In some cases, the form of a noun does not change to reflect its gender, and the only way to determine whether it refers to a male or female person is to look at the article that precedes it. The article will always indicate whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

• masculine articles → o, os (meaning the); un (meaning a, an); uns (meaning some)

• feminine articles → a, as (meaning the); una (meaning a, an); unas (meaning some)

In Brazilian Portuguese, animate nouns ending in -e, -ista, -ante, or -ente are most likely to have the same form in the masculine and feminine. Look at the following examples:

In some cases, the whole noun changes form to reflect the real-world sex or gender of the person or animal it represents:

This way of marking gender is particularly common with nouns referring to animals, much like pairs like “rooster/hen” in English. For example:

• Masculine: o carneiro (meaning the ram)

• Feminine: a ovelha (meaning the sheep)

See more examples like those above on this list! Or, learn more about the names of animals specifically from our guide to the gender of animal names in Brazilian Portuguese!

When they don’t end in -o, masculine inanimate nouns can end in the vowels -i, -u, -á, or -é, or with particular endings like -ema, -oma, or -grama.

There is also a short list of inanimate nouns ending in the consonants -l, -m, or -r that are masculine:

Finally, there are certain categories of inanimate nouns that are always masculine. Colors, numbers, months, and languages fall into these categories. These are some examples:

Aside from the feminine ending -a, inanimate feminine nouns also end in -ade, -agem, or -ície.

Sometimes, inanimate nouns will have a masculine or feminine gender by implication, meaning there is a second, unexpressed noun that determines the gender of the noun.

For example, o Amazonas (meaning the Amazon) is masculine by implication because the word o rio (meaning river) is implied and is a masculine noun.

This often happens with names of countries, lakes, mountains, oceans, and rivers (which are masculine) and with parts of the world, sciences and arts, and cities (which are feminine).

To identify the gender of inanimate nouns ending in -ão, follow these general rules:

• When an inanimate noun ending in -ão is concrete, meaning it is a physical object in the real world, it is a masculine noun.

• When an inanimate noun ending in -ão refers to an abstract idea, then it is feminine.

Take a look:

When an inanimate noun ends in -e or -z the only reliable way to identify the noun’s gender is to check the gender of the article placed before it.

In case you cannot refer to the gender of the article for some reason, take a look at our list of common nouns ending in -e and -z and their genders!

In a few cases, the ending of some inanimate objects can be misleading. Sometimes, they end with -a, but they are actually masculine nouns, and vice-versa. Take a look at the examples below and refer to our list of other misleading nouns!

Some Brazilian Portuguese nouns can be either masculine or feminine, but they change their meaning based on their gender. Even though the noun itself remains the same, the meaning will change, depending on whether you treat it as masculine or feminine. See below:

Check out this list of nouns that change their meaning based on gender for more examples.