Nouns - Substantivos

The nouns - or 'substantivos' - in portuguese are not so easy to learn for one simple reason: genres. Differently than english, in portuguese all words has genres: masculine or feminine. The masculine words are preceded by the article 'o', meanwhile the feminine words are preceded by the article 'a'. There's no magic to learn and remember most of them, but there are a few rules that can help us in this journey.

1. Nouns ending in '-a' are generally feminine words! ex.: a casa (house), a camiseta (t-shirt), a caneta (pen), a vida (life), a terra (land). Exceptions: o dia (day), o problema (problem), o sistema (system), o programa (program/software), etc.
2. Nouns ending in '-o' are generally masculine words! ex.: o ano (year), o tempo (time), o estado (state), o trabalho (work/job), o mundo (world). Exceptions: a mão (hand), a função (function), a direção (direction). Note that all this exceptions are nouns ending in '-ão'. See rule #4.
3. Words of greek origin ending in '-ema' are masculine. ex.: o problema (problem), o sistema (system), o cinema (movies), o poema (poem).
4. Nouns ending in '-ão' are generally feminine words. ex.: a tensão (tension), a confusão (confusion), a mão (hand), a plantação (plantation). Exceptions: o chão (ground), o cão (dog), o pão (bread) and many many others.

These are the rules I remember right now.

TIP: Study each noun along with its article, so you'll have less chances to commit a mistake.

Check this out:

	Masculino	Feminino
Artigo	O	A
Artigo (plural)	Os	As
Numeral	Um, dois, três, quatro...	Uma, duas, três, quatro...

Examples:

O carro é verde. The car is green.

Os carros são verdes. The cars are green.

A mulher é gorda. The woman is fat.

As mulheres são gordas. The women are fat.

Eu tenho um carro. I have a car.

Eu tenho uma camiseta. I have a t-shirt.

Let's exercise!

1) Complete with 'o' or 'a':

a) - carro é azul. (the car is blue)

b) - casa é grande. (the house is big)

c) - homem é magro. (the man is thin)

d) - mulher é alta. (the woman is tall)

e) - pai é baixo. (the father is short)

f) - mãe é bonita. (the mother is beautiful)

2) Complete with 'um' or 'uma':

a) Eu tenho - carro. (I have a car)

b) Eu tennho - camiseta. (I have a t-shirt)

c) Você tem - programa. (You have a program)

d) Você tem - mão. (You have a hand)

e) Ele tem - irmã. (He has a sister)

f) Ela tem - irmão. (She has a brother)

Comment your answer! Good lucky!