Continuing our recurrent look at the differences between EP and BP in the field of transportation (while I didn’t stress this at the time, the nouns autocarro, elé[c]trico, and autoestrada aren’t used as such in BP, being replaced by ônibus, bonde, and rodovia when applicable), we now change our attention to a different type of vehicle: the truck/lorry, known in EP as [o] camião and in BP as [o] caminhão.
In keeping with the changes in spelling and pronunciation, the term for truck/lorry driver also changes between the two variants, with the particularity of each using a different suffix to form the noun: in EP, the word is [o/a] camionista; as a suffix, -ista creates nouns with two genders (also known as epicene nouns), meaning the same term is used regardless of gender, with only the articles/pronouns/adjectives/demonstratives/possessives that surround it providing that information; another example of this rule in this field is [o/a] ciclista, cyclist.
In BP, the word is [o/a] caminhoneiro/a; that is, [o] caminhoneiro (male driver) or [a] caminhoneira (female driver). Nouns related to people ending in -eiro are always masculine (across all variants), with -eira being its feminine counterpart; for example, [o/a] passageiro/a, passenger (of a vehicle).
Related words/Useful sentences:
- [a] roda: wheel
- [a] viagem: trip/voyage
- [o] cansaço: tiredness
- [a] matrícula: license (plate)
- O camião tem dez rodas. The lorry/truck has ten wheels.
- A camionista chegou a casa cansada. The lorry/truck driver got home tired.
- As viagens de camião costumam ser longas. Lorry/Truck trips are usually long.
- Este camião tem matrícula dinamarquesa. This truck has a Danish license plate.
The European Portuguese Experience 
Hey Luis!
You do an incredible job here. I’m just commenting because my OCD forces me to tell you that you have a typo: “we know change our attention” instead of “we now change our attention”.
It’s really not a “mesquinho” remark; it’s rather a small proof-reading contribution to a great blog! :)
Keep up the good work!
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Olá, João!
Thank you for your kind words, and also for the correction! I can only blame myself for that – I often write things very quickly and don’t always stop to check if I have written something wrong (I usually catch it later on, when I return to the post somehow).
I’ll correct that word right away! Thanks again for the support (even though you already quite proficient in EP haha), and feel free to make more comments pointing out typos or adding more to the discussion on each topic :)
Um abraço,
Luís
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Just another typo: This truck as a Danish license plate.> This truck has a Danish license plate.
Parabéns pelos recursos em Português Europeu!
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Thanks. Now corrected.
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