Learning guide - Portuguese Basic Tips

Episode 03 – The feminine and masculine articles in 1

Portuguese

Hello there! I am Marcos Sales and you’re listening

to our third episode. Are you on facebook? So are we!
You can like us there and share this content if you want
to. We are also on twitter, if you prefer it. But, instead of
just doing it, you can send me an e-mail to
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happy.

On today’s episode we are going to speak a little

about the masculine and feminine articles in Portuguese.
First of all, I need to say that we don’t have a full
explanation about it.

(Daniel)

- Marcos, are you really going to do that to me?

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(Sarah)

- Marcos, you’re going to make me spend my time

here.
2
(Alejandro)

- No, no, no Marcos! No me hagas eso, Marcos! Yo

quiero hablar como habla un brasileño!

Hey guys, easy! Tranquilos! Don’t be so cruel to me!

This is a real tuff subject! Not for me, as a Brazilian
guy, but I know what grammar says is not enough to
you. That’s why I keep telling that the most
important thing is to practice Portuguese a lot! In
this case, try to pay attention to every expression
when a Brazilian Portuguese speaker is talking to
someone. And Download our main podcast called
Todo Mundo Pod. It is entirely in Portuguese!

What grammar says about this subject is that

the nouns are divided into two different classes: the

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masculine and feminine genders. Plus: you’ll use the
masculine form to classify the masculine nouns.
And…guess what? You’ll use the feminine way to
classify the feminine nouns.
3

Yeah, I know. It’s not enough to you, is it? I

think that’s because you may not know when a word
has a feminine or masculine form. Am I right?

So to minimize possible errors, I will give you

little tips to better understand this topic.

Think about this phrase:

- A menino está muito cansado.

Did you see something wrong with it? C’mon, I

know you did! You might not even know where the
mess is in this phrase, but I know you felt that
something is wrong.

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 In Portuguese , usually nouns ending with the
letters o, or, l, u and r are classified as masculine
nouns . Therefore, the correct way of saying that
phrase would be “o menino está muito cansado” -
4
The boy is very tired.

You can apply this way of thinking to other

words, as I just said. For example: o amor (the love),
o sabor (the taste), o sol (the sun), o chapéu (the
hat).

Usually the feminine nouns end with the letter a.

As simple as that: a menina (the girl), a blusa (the
blouse), a água (the water) and so on.

- Marcos, you were wrong! It is not a difficult thing

to do. Eu entendi: o menino usa a blusa e o
chapéu.
- Yeah! You’re right! You made it! But I need to say
just one more thing: we have the exceptions. Oh
boy …we do have the exceptions.
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 In Portuguese we have words ending with the letter
e. Those words can be masculine or feminine. A parede
(the wall), o gigante (the giant). 5

And we have some words that you’ll define the

article depending on the gender you are speaking of. For
instance: o estudante (a male student), or a estudante (a
female student)

Please, remember never saying something as a

presidenta, even if you are talking about a girl. (the
president). The correct way to say that is a presidente.

I believe you realized that there are no rules to be

followed in most cases. In this episode I tried to make
things just a little bit clearer to you and I hope you find it
usefull.

That’s it for today!

Thank’s, Daniel, for being here with me.

- You’re welcome! (Daniel)

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 Sarah and Alejandro are not here anymore, but I
hope you guys have enjoyed this episode as I have.

If you have question, you already know that you can

speak to me by sending an e-mail to 6

contato@todomundopod.com

Try to do that in Portuguese! I know you can! After all,

you don’t need to be perfect. You don’t have this
obligation. Send me a message!

See you later!

Thanks.

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E-mail: contato@todomundopod.com