Parent note

Practice o pato

Practice the word with its article: o pato, duck. In European Portuguese, the article 'o' helps show that pato is masculine singular.

English
duck
Say together
o pato
Gender cue
'o' = masculine singular
Plural
os patos

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