Parent note

Practice a pasta de dentes

Practice the word with its article: a pasta de dentes, toothpaste. In European Portuguese, the article 'a' helps show that pasta de dentes is feminine singular.

English
toothpaste
Say together
a pasta de dentes
Gender cue
'a' = feminine singular
Plural
as pastas de dentes

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