Occupations
Gender neutral
You’ve already seen that most words in Portuguese have a masculine and a feminine form.
o aluno e a aluna
the (male) student and the (female) student
But a few words in Portuguese can be used for both men and women!
as estudantes
the (female) students
os estudantes
the (male and female) students
Here are a few more examples of words that don't change for the masculine and feminine forms.
| Masculine | Feminine |
| o chefe | a chefe |
| o guarda | a guarda |
| o modelo | a modelo |
| o representante | a representante |
| o artista | a artista |
| o jornalista | a jornalista |
| o policial | a policial |
| o motorista | a motorista |
Put an a on it
Most Portuguese words that end in ‑r are masculine. Add an ‑a to them to make them feminine.
o leitor
the (male) reader
a leitora
the (female) reader
There are a bunch of masculine words ending in ‑r that you can add ‑a for the feminine form. Here are a few examples.
| Masculine | Feminine |
| o diretor | a diretora |
| o autor | a autora |
| o promotor | a promotora |
| o professor | a professora |
| o escritor | a escritora |
| o pesquisador | a pesquisadora |
| o doutor | a doutora |
We the agents
Be careful with two expressions that are very similar in Portuguese: agente is the profession, while a gente means we.
Quem é o agente?
Who's the agent?
A gente não tem carro.
We don't have a car.
Don’t feel bad...Sometimes, even native speakers of Portuguese get confused and write one when they mean the other!