Marcia???

I'm going to assume that a large portion of this blog's readers play (and by "play" I mean play, played, know how to play, trade, judge, whatever) Magic. If you do, it is very likely that you're familiar with the name Márcio Carvalho, especially if you're Portuguese. Márcio is a big name in Portuguese Magic, one of the greatest ever of this country. Moving on to a little of Portuguese grammar.

Like the other latin languages, Portuguese has a funny little curiosity. Our nouns can be classified into Singular or Plural, but also classified into Male or Female, just because our grammar says so. For example:

Carro (car) is a male noun.
Mota (moto) is a female noun.

Does this mean that cars are for men and motos for women? No, it's just grammar, male nouns and female nouns need diferent pronouns and articles, and the adjectives have to be slightly modified in order to have 100% perfect grammar.

Usually, the rule is, if it ends in "a" it's a female noun, if it ends in "o" it's a male noun.

Take a look at these names: Tiago, Márcio, Paulo, Eduardo, Hugo, João, Pedro. They're all names for guys, and they all end in "o".

How about these names then? Joana, Paula, Claudia, they end in "a" they are girls names. If you guys happen to mistype PV's name into Paula (I saw it happen one time, and it didn't seemed an inoccent mistype), he will feel a little offended, because you are calling him a girl.

Which brings me back to the topic, why is the title of this post "Márcia" if i started talking about Márcio Carvalho?

Yesterday it was local holiday, Saint Anthony's day, Patron Saint of Lisbon. Me and my friends went out to the street to join the excitement, music, dance, parades, grilled sardines and peppers. During the evening Márcio called his sister Joana Carvalho to meet up. I've seen pictures of her before, and I have her as a friend on some social network, but seeing her again side by side with Márcio, I really had to make a terrible effort in order not to call her Márcia Carvalho (or Márcia Carvalha, for emphasis).

I was unable to get a picture of Márcio's female clone, but next time you play against him, think of Márcio Carvalho with long hair and boobs.