ABSTRACT
Every Portuguese noun falls into one of two grammatical categories, called masculine and feminine. The categories are so called because nearly all nouns denoting male beings are masculine, and nearly all nouns denoting female beings are feminine. But all other nouns – those denoting inanimate objects, abstract concepts, etc. – also belong to one of these categories, so, for example, carro ‘car’, calor ‘heat’ and restante ‘remainder’ are all masculine, while mesa ‘table’, idade ‘age’ and decisão ‘decision’ are all feminine.
