This website offers suggestions on how to use the Portuguese language in a more inclusive way and provides suggestions for how to use gender-neutral forms. Our purpose in providing these options is not to dictate rules or determine how people should identify themselves, but rather to enable students and instructors of Portuguese to express their identities through more inclusive language, even though such a system does not yet exist in the standard language.
The non-binary language system adopted here only applies to people, not to inanimate objects or animals. The masculine/feminine forms for objects and animals remain the same. For example, the sentence “Essa é a minha cadeira.” does not change. In addition, words used to refer to people that do not mark gender also remain the same, such as “Eu sou inteligente.” “Por que você está triste?”, “Tu deste-lhe o presente.”
Since there is no accepted standard yet, different speakers may choose to use different gender-neutral forms (See https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender_neutral_language_in_Portuguese), and these forms may continue to evolve over time, but the suggested endings in the following table are based on the Élu/Êlu pronoun system and the neutral ending -e. This information is adapted from the 2021 document “Guia de linguagem não binária ou neutra em português”, created by Cristiane Soares, Coordinator of the Portuguese Program at Harvard University. For further details on neutral forms, see Gioni Caê Almeida’s “Manual para o uso da linguagem neutra em Língua Portuguesa” (2020).
The use of non-binary forms takes time and practice, especially for people who are accustomed to using the binary system, such as native-speakers, teachers and advanced language learners of Portuguese. Mistakes will certainly be made, so it is important that students and teachers be understanding and help each other in what is a process of learning for all of us.
Resumo das formas gramaticais masculinas, femininas e neutras
| Masculino | Feminino | Neutro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. PRONOMES DE TERCEIRA PESSOA (THIRD PERSON PRONOUNS) | |||
| Pronomes pessoais (Subject pronouns) | ele, eles | ela, elas | elu, elus |
| Contração pronome + preposição DE (Contractions w/ DE) | dele, deles | dela, delas | delu, delus |
| Contração pronome + preposição EM (Contractions w/ EM) | nele, neles | nela, nelas | nelu, nelus |
| Pronomes oblíquos (Object pronouns) | o, os lo, los | a, as la, las | e, es le, les |
| II. DETERMINANTES E NUMERAIS (DETERMINERS AND NUMBERS) | |||
| Artigos definidos (Definite articles) | o, os | a, as | le, les |
| Artigos indefinidos (Indefinite articles) | um, uns | uma, umas | ume, umes |
| Possessivos (Possessives) | meu, meus teu, teus seu, seus nosso, nossos | minha, minhas tua, tuas sua, suas nossa, nossas | minhe, minhes tue, tues sue, sues nosse, nosses |
| Demonstrativos (Demonstratives) | este, estes esse, esses aquele, aqueles | esta, estas essa, essas aquela, aquelas | estu, estus essu, essus aquelu, aquelus |
| Numerais (Numbers) | um dois | uma duas | ume dues |
| III. NOMES E ADJETIVOS (NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES) | |||
| Nomes e adjetivos terminados em –o, –a *Mudança ortográfica (Nouns & adjectives ending in -o, -a) *Spelling change | menino, meninos aluno, alunos tio, tios querido, queridos cansado, cansados amigo, amigos médico, médicos | menina, meninas aluna, alunas tia, tias querida, queridas cansada, cansadas amiga, amigas médica, médicas | menine, menines alune, alunes tie, ties queride, querides cansade, cansades amigue, amigues* médique, médiques* |
| Outras terminações de nomes (Other noun endings) | professor, professores espanhol, espanhóis irmão, irmãos | professora, professoras espanhola, espanholas irmã, irmãs | professore, professories espanhole, espanholies irmane, irmanes |