According to grammatical postulates, gender is used to classify words as masculine or feminine. Based on this assumption, it is worth mentioning that among the many questions that persist when the subject is exactly the language we speak, some concern this classification.
This reason guides the central point of the study addressed in this article - portrayed by some clarifications about how we should refer to certain words, bearing in mind the particularity in question (whether masculine or women). So let's analyze some cases:
Lime or lime?
Assuming that “cal” is a feminine word, we should say lime.
The slipper or the slipper?
We can say that both forms are correct. However, the most common is the slipper.
Lettuce or lettuce?
The correct one is lettuce, since this word represents a feminine word.
Diabetes or diabetes?
Since diabetes or diabetes is a common noun of two genders, it doesn't matter. We can say diabetes, diabetes, diabetes, diabetes.
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The ecstasy or the ecstasy?
The correct thing is ecstasy, for that word is masculine.
The mousse or the mousse?
According to the classification given by the “Aurélio” and “Houaiss” dictionaries, mousse is conceived as a feminine word. So the mousse.
The omelet or the omelet?
There are divergences between some dictionaries, as Aurélio records “the omelet”, while Houaiss and VOLP (Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language) consider omelet as a common noun of two genres. So, we can use both ways.
The guarana or the guarana?
Guarana is a masculine noun. Therefore, it is correct to say guarana.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "Genre of some words"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/genero-alguns-vocabulos.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.