Gender issues 3

I know I keep going on about the masculine and feminine of Portuguese nouns, but it`s partly because I find it so difficult to get right coming from English, a language without gender.

Recently, I`ve noticed that I occasionally get the ends of nouns wrong when I`m not sure if they are masculine (-o) or feminine (-a). I do this often when I`m trying hard to get my adjectives to agree with the gender of the noun and in so doing I accidentally change the noun! The problem is, sometimes, this can change the meaning dramatically.

Some examples (which I will keep updating)
bola – ball, bolo – cake
foca – seal (the animal), foco – focus
tira – cop, tiro – shot
vaga – space (as in parking space), vago – vague (which is actually an adjective)
verba – financial budget, verbo – verb

Gender issues 2

This post follows on from what I wrote about getting the gender right in Portuguese.

I thought I’d try and make a list here, which I will keep updating, of the most common irregular nouns that don’t follow any of the rules that I listed before.

Words that are feminine that you might think were masculine

a carne = the meat
a colher = the spoon
a chave = the key
a fase = the phase
a foto = the photo
a luz = the light
a noite = the night
a torre = the tower
a vez = the time/the phase

Words that are masculine that you might think were feminine

o chá = the tea
o clima = the weather
o dia = the day
o sofa = the sofa

 

Compound Nouns

Generally, it seems to me (unless anyone can tell me otherwise) that compound nouns – words made up of two nouns often end up being masculine even if both the nouns are feminine. Some examples:

o guarda-roupa = the wardrobe (guarda and roupa are both feminine separately)
o guarda-chuva = the umbrella (guarda and chuva are both feminine separately)
o homem-aranha = the spiderman (homem is masculine and aranha is feminine)

Other compound words

When there is a preposition between the words, the first word is usually the one that has to agree with the gender and plural rules. For example:

o Pé-de-moleque = lit. young boy’s foot, a kind of brittle candy popular in Brazil.

The gender can change in some compound nouns depending on if you are talking about a male or a female person:

o Amigo-da-onça / a amiga-da-onça = the friend of the jaguar (an idiom meaning a person who seems like a good friend but is hypocritical or insincere).
O Ex-governador / a ex-governadora = the ex-governor.

Some compounds combine adjectives and verbs with nouns. Then the gender and plural agrees with the noun:

O Beija-flor = lit. the kiss-flower / hummingbird.
Os Beija-flores = lit. the kiss-flowers / hummingbirds.

Thanks to Jack Scholes’ book (see Links & Resources) for giving me some of the examples for this section.

Gender issues

How to sort out your masculine and feminine issues

Jack Scholes tells this story:

“I will never forget my very first attempt to speak Portuguese. I walked into the British Council, took a deep breath, and instead omy usual greeting, “Good morning”, I confidently ventured to say, “Bom dia… Eu tenho uma problema”. At this point Circe [the secretary] went straight into English and told me that I didn’t have “uma problema”, I had “um problema”. I felt so frustrated!”

His frustration is understandable, as anyone who’s been speaking Portuguese for a while will know. Nouns are masculine and feminine and their articles and corresponding adjectives have to agree with them. Words ending in -a are usually feminine (think of people’s names: Renata, Maria, Gloria) and words ending in -o or something else are usually masculine (Paulo, Marcelo, Ronaldo). So, for example – uma mesa branca (a white table – f) and um bolo gostoso (a delicious cake – m). But, as ever, there are exceptions.

Jack Scholes goes onto explain:

Words ending in -ema are of greek origin and are masculine (as are most words imported from languages other than latin). This results in something which sounds a bit out of place… Um problema complicado (a complicated problem), o sistema nervoso (the nervous system), os esquemas fraudulentos (those fraudulent schemes).

Ron Martinez also helps with some tips on getting gender right:

Nouns are usually feminine if they end in -ade. For example: a liberdade (the freedom), a cidade (the city), a realidade (the reality)… and if they end in -ção. For example: a informação (the information), a cotaçâo (the rate), a tentaçâo (the temptation)… and if they end in -são. For example: a colisão (the collision), a mansão (the mansion), a tensão (the tension).

Nouns are usually masculine if they end in a consanant. For example, o jornal (the newspaper), o professor (the teacher), o som (the sound)… and if they end in -ão (but not -ção or -são). For example: o irmão (the brother), o campeão (the champion), o pão (the bread).

For info on the books I took those tips from, click the Links & Resources tab above.

Even more irregular gender with Brazilian Portuguese nouns

OK, but in spite of all of the above, there are still irregularities that just have to be learned. For example, times of the day are all back to front. People say “Bom dia” (Good morning), but “Boa tarde” (Good afternoon) and “Boa noite” (Good evening/night). In other words, the adjective “good” changes according to the gender of the time of day. The only thing is, based on the rules it’s the wrong way around. This only struck me as odd recently when I realised that dia is masculine (it ends in -a so why not feminine?) and both tarde and noite are feminine words when you could easily be mistaken for thinking they were masculine.

The number 2

This is also important when you need to say two days or two nights. Annoyingly, the number 2 has to match the things it’s describing (other numbers don’t). Two for masculine things is “dois” and for feminine things “duas”. Many, many times I have immediately given myself away to be a gringo learning Portuguese by getting it wrong. (Frustratingly, my 2 year old son is learning Portuguese and his supple young mind gets it right every time!). So, two days = dois dias NOT duas dias (as I frequently say) and two nights = duas noites NOT dois noites.

Words with 2 genders

And, finally, some words such as “cara” (face) and even “laranja” (orange) have different meanings depending on if they are used in a masculine or feminine way. The main meaning of both comes from the feminine – a cara (the face) and a laranja (the orange). But, switch the gender and you get a new meaning: o cara (the guy/the bloke/the man) and o laranja (a stooge/an intermediary).  In both cases though, the main and obvious meaning is feminine and the idiomatic, informal meaning to describe a type of person is masculinised. Anyone know any more examples?

You can see an example of this in the poster for the film above “Ela é o cara” which is a translation of “She’s the man” not, as you might think, “She’s the face”.