As you may already know, the substantive it is the class of words that designates or names beings in general. In addition, we already know that this word class can be inflected in gender, number and degree.
Regarding gender inflection, however, there are some particularities to be noted. As a general rule, nouns belonging to the masculine gender are those to which the article "O”; and the nouns that belong to the feminine gender are those to which the article can be placed “The“However, there is a group of nouns that escapes this rule and is called a uniform noun. As the name already indicates, these are nouns that have a single gender to designate one and the other sex of animals and people. Are we going to analyze them?
Uniform nouns can be:
a) Epicene nouns: are the names of animals that have only one grammatical gender to designate the two sexes.
Examples:
the Eagle
the whale
the beetle
the armadillo
Attention! When we need to specify the sex of the animal, we use the words "male" and "female" along with the noun:
male eagle – female eagle
b) Supercommon nouns: are the nouns that have only one grammatical gender to designate people.
Examples:
the apostle
the witness
the spouse
the individual
the person
Attention!When there is a need to specify the sex, it is said:
the female spouse - the male spouse
the male person – the female person.
ç)Common nouns of two genders: they are the nouns that distinguish gender by placing determinants (pronouns, articles) in the masculine or feminine gender.
Example:
the indigenous – the indigenous
the acrobat - the acrobat
the agent - the agent
the comrade - the comrade
Attention!
- All nouns or noun adjectives ending in -ista are common of two genders:
the pianist - the pianist
- It is said "the character” or “the character”, regardless of whether it refers to a man or a woman.
By Mariana Rigonatto
Graduated in Letters
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-substantivo-uniforme.htm