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Portuguese Word Gender and Agreement
In Portuguese, like in other Romance languages, nouns are classified by gender—masculine or feminine. However, this gender classification extends beyond nouns to adjectives, pronouns, and articles, which change form depending on the gender of the noun they refer to.
Take the following sentences:
(1) O meu primo comprou o seu primeiro carro.
My cousin bought his first car.
(2) A minha prima comprou a sua primeira mota.
My cousin bought her first motorcycle.
In the examples above, the red words are nouns, either masculine (primo, carro) or feminine (prima, mota). The blue words, in contrast, change to match the gender of the nouns they refer to.
As you can see, changing the gender of the red words—like in the shift from sentence 1 to sentence 2—also changes the gender of all the surrounding blue words.
This gender agreement is essential in Portuguese and can be tricky for learners. When you confuse the gender of a noun, you can make mistakes with the articles, adjectives, and pronouns around it.
But worry not! In this article, I’ll guide you through the spelling patterns of gender for Portuguese nouns and provide helpful tips for converting masculine nouns to feminine and vice versa. Read on.
💡In this article, you will learn about masculine-to-femine conversion patterns. But what about singular-to-plural patterns? Here’s your read: Forming the Plural in Portuguese: Singular-to-Plural Conversion Patterns You Need to Care About.
Nouns
Masculine or Feminine?
In Portuguese, nouns are either masculine or feminine. But how do you know which is which?
Native speakers like me know it by heart, of course. But for those learning Portuguese as a second language, wrapping your head around noun gender can be a long and often frustrating process. Fortunately, some spelling patterns can help. Let’s look at a few of them.
The -o/-a pattern
The -o/-a pattern is one of the most common in Portuguese. Many masculine and feminine nouns end in -o and -a, respectively. This alone will help you guess the gender of a large number of words:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o vaso (pot) | a mesa (table) |
| o livro (book) | a torneira (tap) |
| o carro (car) | a janela (window) |
| o copo (glass) | a casa (house) |
| o garfo (fork) | a persiana (blind) |
| o correio (post) | a faca (knife) |
| o prédio (building) | a cama (bed) |
| . . . |
While this pattern is helpful, be aware of exceptions like o dia (day – masculine) and a tribo (tribe – feminine).
To be 100% sure about a noun’s gender, look at the words that come before it—o, a, este, esta, etc. These are called determiners, and they reveal the noun’s gender.
Nouns ending in -grama, -ema, and -oma
Several masculine nouns ending in -a go against the usual pattern. Fortunately, their suffixes give us a clue. Accordingly, nouns ending in -grama, -ema, and -oma are usually masculine:
| MASCULINE |
| o programa (program) |
| o telegrama (telegram) |
| o cinema (cinema) |
| o sistema (system) |
| o idioma (idiom) |
| o axioma (axiom) |
| . . . |
So far, we’ve looked at nouns ending with either -o or -a. Yet, there’s an abundance of nouns ending with other vowels or with consonants. In these cases, there are also spelling patterns to help us identify the gender. Let’s look at some of them.
Nouns ending in -l, -r, or -z
Most nouns ending in -l, -r, or -z are masculine:
| MASCULINE |
| o papel (paper) |
| o anel (ring) |
| o colar (collar) |
| o lugar (place) |
| o juíz (judge) |
| o arroz (rice) |
| . . . |
Nouns ending in -ão
When referring to tangible things – as opposed to abstract concepts – nouns ending in -ão tend to be masculine:
| MASCULINE |
| o pão (bread) |
| o limão (lemon) |
| o coração (heart) |
| o pião (spinning-top) |
| . . . |
Nouns ending in -ção ,-são, or -ssão
Words ending in -ção, -são, or -ssão – especially when referring to abstract concepts – are usually feminine:
| Feminine |
| a exceção (exception) |
| a resignação (resignation) |
| a dimensão (dimension) |
| a divisão (division) |
| a compressão (compression) |
| a missão (mission) |
| . . . |
💡Notice how these words have English cognates? You may know more Portuguese than you think: English-Portuguese Cognates – The Words You Already Know (Without Knowing It).
Nouns ending in -gem
Nouns ending in –gem are also feminine:
| FEMININE |
| a coragem (courage) |
| a origem (origin) |
| a imagem (image) |
| a vantagem (advantage) |
| a paisagem (landscape) |
| a viagem (travel) |
| . . . |
Nouns ending in -dade
Words ending in -dade are usually feminine:
| FEMININE |
| a cidade (city) |
| a necessidade (necessity) |
| a integridade (integrity) |
| a qualidade (quality) |
| a possibilidade (possibility) |
| a mobilidade (mobility) |
| . . . |
Two Genders, Two Forms
Unlike the nouns we’ve covered so far, these have two distinct forms: masculine and feminine. They typically refer to humans and express things like kinship, profession, or nationality.
Since all nouns in this category come in both masculine and feminine forms, we’ll now look at some common masculine-to-feminine conversion patterns.
The good old -o/-a pattern
As mentioned earlier, the -o/-a pattern is widespread across the language, and many words with both masculine and feminine forms follow it.
Masculine words ending in -o form the feminine by replacing -o with -a:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o tio (uncle) | a tia (aunt) |
| o primo (cousin, he) | a prima (cousin, she) |
| o médico (doctor, he) | a médica (doctor, she) |
| o arquiteto (architect, he) | a arquiteta (architect, she) |
| o gato (male cat) | a gata (female cat) |
| o sueco (Swedish man) | a sueca (Swedish woman) |
| . . . |
Masculine nouns ending in -or
For masculine nouns ending in -or, the feminine form is typically created by adding -a. This is common with professions and crafts:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o pintor (painter, he) | a pintora (painter, she) |
| o cantor (singer, he) | a cantora (singer, she) |
| o professor (teacher, he) | a professora (teacher, she) |
| o mentor (mentor, he) | a mentora (mentor, she) |
| . . . |
A few words ending in -or, however, form their feminine with -triz:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o ator (actor) | a atriz (actress) |
| o embaixador (ambassador, he) | a embaixatriz (ambassador, she) |
| o imperador (emperor) | a emperatriz (empress) |
| . . . |
Masculine nouns ending in -ês
For masculine nouns ending in -ês, we typically form the feminine by adding -a. These are often nationalities:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o francês (French man) | a francesa (French woman) |
| o japonês (Japanese man) | a japonesa (Japanese woman) |
| o inglês (English man) | a inglesa (English woman) |
| o dinamarquês (Danish man) | a dinamarquesa (Danish woman) |
| . . . |
💡By the way, the name of a language always corresponds to the masculine form of the respective nationality. So we say francês, japonês, inglês, and dinamarquês when referring to the languages.
Masculine nouns ending in -ão
Masculine nouns ending in -ão often form the feminine by replacing -ão with -ã:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o ancião (old man) | a anciã (old woman) |
| o alemão (German man) | a alemã (German woman) |
| o irmão (brother) | a irmã (sister) |
| o aldeão (villager, he) | a aldeã (villager, she) |
| . . . |
In some cases, though, the -ão ending is replaced with -oa or -ona:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o melão (melon) | a meloa (small melon) |
| o leão (lion) | a leoa (lioness) |
| o chorão (crybaby, he) | a chorona (crybaby, she) |
| solteirão (bachelor) | solteirona (spinster) |
| . . . |
Noble titles ending in -e
Noble titles that end in -e tend to form the feminine by taking either -esa or -essa:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o conde (count) | a condessa (countess) |
| o duque (duke) | a duquesa (duchess) |
| o príncipe (prince) | a princesa (princess) |
| o abade (abbot) | a abadessa (abbess) |
| . . . |
Anomalous cases
Some commonly used words don’t follow any clear conversion pattern. These simply need to be memorised:
| MASCULINE | FEMININE |
| o homem (man) | a mulher (woman) |
| o pai (father) | a mãe (mother) |
| o rapaz (boy) | a rapariga (girl) |
| o rei (king) | a rainha (queen) |
| o frade (friar) | a freira (nun) |
| . . . |
Two Genders, One Form (Unisex)
Nouns ending with either -e or -a
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