Summary p238

238 CONYERSATIONAL PORTUGUESE

13. MASCULINE AND FEMININE

238 CONYERSATIONAL PORTUGUESE

males are masculine; nouns are feminine:

Nouns referring to referring to females

o pai    the    father

ofilho    the    son

o homem    the    man

o leao    the    lion

a mae    the mother

a filha    the daughter

a mułher    the woman

a leoa    the lioness

The masculine plural of certain nouns can m clude both genders:

os pais    the parents, the father

and mother

os irmaos    the brothers, the brother

and sister, the brothers and sisters

MASCULINE NOUNS

1. Nouns ending in diphthongs (vowel combina-tions pronounced together), m (but not em), s and o are usually masculine:

o grau o ełogio o dom o lapis um abraęo

the degree the praise the gift the pencil an embrace, hug

2. Names of months, seas, rivers, mountains, letters of the alphabet are generally masculine:

Janeiro e o primeiro mes. o Ailantico o Amazonas o de

January is the first month. the Atlantic the Amazon (River) the “d”

FEMININE NOUNS

Nouns ending in a, ie,	, em, ade, ede, and ice are
usually feminine:
a bócd^1	the mouth
a ordem	the order
a amizade	friendship
a parede	the wali
a yelhice	old age
Common exceptions:
o homem	the man
a good number of words ending in a, especially
ma, are masculine:
o drama	the drama
o clima	the climate
o dia	the day
o mapa	the map
o idioma	the language
Names of cities, towns, islands, and continents
are usually feminine:
a Lisboa	Lisbon
a Sicilia	Sicily
a America	America
Some exceptions:
o Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo	Sio Paulo
o Porto (Porto	Porto

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