Parent note

Practice a mesa de cabeceira

Practice the word with its article: a mesa de cabeceira, nightstand. In European Portuguese, the article 'a' helps show that mesa de cabeceira is feminine singular.

English
nightstand
Say together
a mesa de cabeceira
Gender cue
'a' = feminine singular
Plural
as mesas de cabeceira

Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender. The article is included here so children learn the sound of the word and its gender pattern together, instead of treating the article as an extra grammar detail later.

There are useful patterns, but gender is not perfectly predictable from spelling and there are edge cases. The dictionary links below are there for adults who want to check the full entry, grammar details, or pronunciation notes.

Sources