The Substantive, part 1: "The Gender Inflexion"

Portuguese is an inflected analytical language, in other words, it forms words through morphemes and its morphological and syntactic values ​​are indicated by prepositions, adverbs and articles. Thus, it is not synthetic like Latin, like German or Russian, which have declination. In Portuguese, the only declension cases occur in pronouns. THE FLEXION OF THE NAMES IN PORTUGUESE IS NOT SYNTHETIC, IT IS INDICATED THROUGH WORDS WITH SYNTACTIC VALUE (ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS AND ARTICLES)! English is a good example. The only declension case in English which is still used is the Genitive Case, shown by the ending " 's ". However, in Portuguese substantives aren't inflectional, but they have a syntactic value from the words that follow. This is called grammatical flexion (inflection).

In this lesson, you're going to learn the Gender flexion.

Every noun, including those that designate objects, or belong to the masculine gender or the feminine gender. This is a purely grammatical classification, which is not necessarily related to sex. The feminine article is "a" and the masculine is "o". 

o lápis   'the pencil'                     o caderno   'the notebook'                     a borracha   'the eraser'

a caneta   'the pen'                      a vítima   'the victim'

Biform Substantives (Substantivos Biformes): are those that present a form for masculine and another for feminine.

masculine                   feminine                     masculine            feminine

aluno (student, pupil)   aluna (student, pupil)   bode (billy-goat)   cabra (nanny-goat)

menino (boy)              menina (girl)               carneiro (ram)      ovelha (sheep)

homem (man)             mulher (woman)    cavaleiro (knight, horseman) amazona (amazon, horsewoman)       

Uniform Substantives (Substantivos Uniformes): are which present an only form, both for masculine as for feminine. They subdivided in:

• epicene (epicenos): are the uniform substantives that designte some animals: a onça (ounce); o jacaré (alligator), o tigre (tiger), a borboleta (butterfly), a foca (seal)

If you want to specify the sex of the animal, it must be added the words macho (male) ou fêmea (female).

a onça macho (the male ounce), a onça fêmea (the female ounce) (the substantive onça 'ounce' always will be feminine)       

o jacaré macho (the male alligator), o jacaré fêmea (the female alligator) (the substantive jacaré 'alligator' always will be masculine)

• common of two genders (comuns de dois gêneros): are the uniform substantives that designate people. In this case, differentiation of gender is made by article or any other factor: o artista, a artista (the artist); o estudante, a estudante (the student); este* dentista (this dentist), aquela* dentista (that dentist) (* este 'this' is the masculine of the pronoun while aquela 'that' is the feminine of aquele 'that'); jornalista recém-formado, jornalista recém-formada* (newly formed journalist) (* here the adjectives agree with the noun, what shows the gender of the journalist).
• superccommon (sobrecomuns): are uniform substantives that designate people. In this case, the gender is fixed (always masculine or always feminine) and the articles and the other factors remain invariable: a criança (the child), o cônjuge (the spouse), a pessoa (the person), a criatura (the creature).

Change of meaning with change of gender

Thre are identical substantives in the form, however of different genders and different meanings. See some examples:

masculine substantive   meaning

o cabeça (the head)         the chief, the leader

o capital (the capital)       the money, the goods

o rádio (the radio)           receiving device

feminine substantive   meaning

a cabeça (the head)        body part

a capital (the capital)      capital city

a rádio (the radio)          transmitting station

*It is important to note that, many times, does not occur gender flexion. The substantives o grama 'the gram (unit of weight)'/ a grama 'the grass', for example, although they're identical in the form, are two words of different origins, two distinct words.

EXERCÍCIO:

WHAT'S THE GENDER?

Below are some titles of famous books and movies in Brazil. Complete using the definite articles "o" and "a" you learned in this lesson using your intuition. (To answer, you should copy the exercise and paste in the comments). Use as base the fact that most of the words in Portuguese is masculine, since the masculine and neutral nouns in Latin became masculine in the Romance languages​​. The ending of the word can help a lot. DON'T USE ANY REFERENCE MATERIAL! USE YOUR INTUITION!

__ Código da Vinci (The Da Vinci Code)

Harry Potter e __ Pedra Filosofal (Harry Potter and the Philopher's Stone, lit. "Philosophical Stone")

Harry Potter e __ Câmara Secreta (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, lit. "Secret Chamber")

Harry Potter e __ Prisioneiro de Azkaban (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

Harry Potter e __ Cálice de Fogo (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

(there's even a joke, Harry Potter+Daenerys Targaryen+ Fogo= Harry Potter e __ "Khaleesi" de Fogo")

Harry Potter e __ Ordem da Fênix (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Harry Potter e __ Enigma do Príncipe (Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, lit. "Prince's Enigma") 

__ Senhor dos Anéis (The Lord of the Rings)

__ Sociedade/Irmandade do Anel (The Fellowship of the Ring)

__ Retorno do Rei (The Return of the King)

__ Hobbit (The Hobbit)

__ Bússola de Ouro (The Golden Compass)

Percy Jackson e __ Ladrão de Raios (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief)

__ Cabana (The Shack)

__ Segredo (The Secret)

__ Ilíada (The Illiad)/ __ Odisséia (The Odyssey)

__ Caçador de Pipas (The Kite Runner)

Wait for the next part, the Number Flexion (singular, plural)...