Grammatical gender sorts every Latin noun into one of three groups: masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Can recognize Noun gender in a short Latin prompt
Подивіться на ці приклади. Чи можете ви помітити граматичну закономірність?
Manus mea dolet.
My hand hurts.
Diēs longus est.
The day is long.
Зверніть увагу на виділені частини. Що у них спільного?
Grammatical gender sorts every Latin noun into one of three groups: masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is not about biological sex; it is a grammatical class that decides which adjective endings and pronouns a noun takes. You learn a noun's gender as part of the word, the way you learn its spelling.
English has almost no grammatical gender, so this is a genuinely new idea. We say "the big table" no matter what; Latin makes the adjective agree with the noun's gender, so gender is something you must track from the start.
| Gender | Typical example | Rough guide |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | servus (slave), puer (boy) | many 2nd-decl. -us/-er |
| Feminine | puella (girl), rosa (rose) | most 1st-decl. -a |
| Neuter | bellum (war), nōmen (name) | 2nd-decl. -um and many 3rd-decl. |
Gender controls agreement:
Two cautions. Do not assume gender always matches meaning or ending: agricola (farmer) ends in -a but is masculine because farmers were men, and third-declension nouns give few visible clues, so learn their gender from the dictionary. When you meet a new noun, store three things together: the word, its genitive, and its gender.
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A1
Вправи для практикиManus mea dolet.
My hand hurts.
Manus ends in -us and is feminine: fourth declension. The ending is a clue, not a rule.
Diēs longus est.
The day is long.
Dies is usually masculine but turns feminine when it means an appointed day - a rare case of gender carrying meaning.
Перевірка для цієї теми готується
Практикувати в курсі
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A1