2.4. Gender Patterns
2.4.1. Masculine Gender
The names of days, colors, languages and cardinal points are masculine.
| Lo lunes | Monday |
| Lo rosso | Red |
| Lo francese | French |
| Lo nòrde | The north |
Words ending in -agge are also masculine.
| Lo viagge | The journey |
| Lo messagge | The message |
| Lo avantagge | The advantage |
2.4.2. Feminine Gender
Nouns that end in -tione, -tsone, -tate, -gione, -sione, -tude, -ete, -ece, -ice, -ite, -oce and -uce are feminine.
| La actione | The action |
| La rattsone | The reason |
| La universitate | The university |
| La regione | The region |
| La passione | The passione |
| La actitude | The attitude |
| La parete | The wall |
| La vece | The instance of time |
| La actrice | The actress |
| La bronchite | The bronchitis |
| La voce | The voice |
| La luce | The light |
2.4.3. Exceptions
Words of Greek Origin
Many nouns that end in -a are masculine because their gender was originally neutral in Greek; specifically, words that end in: -ma, -pa, -ta.
| Lo tèma | The theme / The subject |
| Lo problèma | The problem |
| Lo sistèma | The system |
| Lo drama | The drama |
| Lo programma | The program |
| Lo clima | The climate |
| Lo Papa | The Pope |
| Lo planeta | The planet |
| Lo idioma | The language |
| Lo síntoma | The symptom |
Nouns ending in -ise are feminine and also come from Greek.
| La críse | The crisis |
| La síntese | The synthesis |
| La gènese | The genesis |
| La tèse | The thesis |
| La oasi | The oasis |
The gender of the noun "oasis" is masculine in Spanish and Catalan, but feminine in other Romance languages.
Underlying Gender
Clipped Forms
Some nouns are exceptions because they come from shortened forms of a feminine nou.
| La foto (la fotografía) | The photo (photography) |
| La moto (la motoclicletta) | The motorcycle |
Acronyms and Names
In a similar fashion, the gender of acronyms and shortened names comes from the original noun.
| La MPB (La Música Populare Brasiliana) | MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) |
| La Roma (La Associatione Esportiva Roma) | Roma (The Roma Sporting Association) |
Words Using “Parent Nouns”
Foreign words and brands use the gender of their “parent noun”. Although the parent noun is a different noun, it is the type of thing the new noun is.
| NOUN | PARENT NOUN |
|---|---|
| La Playstation | La consola (The console) |
| Lo golf | Lo espòrte (The sport) |
| La App Store | La boteca (The store) |
| Gomorra èst la mellîore! | Gomorra is the best! |
The noun “mellîore” is feminine in this case because “Gomorra” is a “sèrie” (feminine gender).
Words of Latin Origin
Many nouns are exceptions because of their gender in Latin. These words may be directly inherited, borrowed or a learned borrowing.
| La mano | The hand |
| Lo día | The day |
| La parte | The part |
| La classe | The class |
| La base | The base / The basis |
| La gènte | The people |
| La clave | The key |
| La nève | The snow |
| La pèlle | The skin |
| La fame | The hunger |
| La fèbre | The fever |
| Lo làpis | The pencil |
| La imàgine | The image |
| La torre | The tower |
| La volpe | The fox |
| La lege | The law |
| La ape / La apecla | The bee |
| La mòrte | The death |
| La neve | The snow |
| La nòcte | The night |
| La nave | The ship |
| La radice | The root |
| La nuve | The cloud |
| La semènte / La seme | The seed |
| La sorore | The sister |
| La superficie | The surface |
| La aquila | The eagle |
| La síndrome | The syndrome |
| La fronte | The forehead |
| La carne | The meat |
| La vocale | The vowel |
The genders of the words below are different in specific Romance languages:
| WORD | MEANING | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Lo lacte | The milk | Feminine in Spanish and Catalan, masculine in all others. |
| La banca | The bank | Masculine in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, feminine in all others. |
| Lo órdene | The order | Spanish use different genders for different meanings of the word, but most Romance languages use the same gender. |
| La pólvere | The dust | Masculine in Latin, generally feminine in Romance languages. |
| La cénere | The ash | Either masculine or feminine in Latin, but feminine in Romance languages. |
| La valle | The valley | Masculine in Spanish and Portuguese. |
| La mappa | The map | Masculine in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, feminine in all others. |
For learners of Spanish, you may have seen words like “el hambre”, “el agua”, “el águila” and “el hacha”. In reality, the gender of these nouns are still feminine. The reason why they have the masculine definite article “el” in the singular form is that these nouns start with a stressed “a”. The use of the definite article “el” is used to avoid repetition of the same vowel between words and to sound more harmonious.
In Neolatin, such a rule does not exist. Simply write the word using the feminine definite article “la” (ex: la aqua).
Gender Without Clear Origin
| WORD | MEANING | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| La fònte | The source | Originally masculine in Latin, but feminine in Romance languages. |
| Lo sofà | The couch | Feminine in Arabic, but masculine in French and then other Romance languages. |
| Lo automòbile | The automobile | Masculine in Spanish and Portuguese, feminine in Italian and French. |
Either Masculine or Feminine
Some nouns can be either masculine or feminine and have the same meaning.
These situations happen for the following reasons:
- Sometimes the original word in Latin could be masculine or feminine.
- The gender of the noun was originally neutral in Latin and then reassigned to another gender in the Romance languages.
- The gender is simply different from its original gender in Latin.
| WORD | MEANING | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Lo/La màrgine | The margin | |
| Lo/La fine | The end (final point) | Masculine in Spanish and Portuguese, feminine in Italian and French. Iberian languages are more likely to use “final” for “ending”. |
| Lo/La mare | The sea | Masculine in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, feminine in French and Romanian. |
| Lo/La mèle | The honey | |
| Lo/La sèrpe/serpiènte | The snake | |
| Lo/La arte | The art | Feminine in Latin, masculine in some Romance languages. |
2.4.4. Unique Patterns
Immutable Nouns
Some nouns can be used to refer to both males and females, despite their gender. Neither the article nor the noun changes if it describes a male or female.
| La persona | The person |
| La estella | The star |
Invariable Nouns: Different Gender, Same Ending
Some nouns that describe professions or occupations can be masculine or feminine depending on the gender of the subject. Note that the article must agree with the natural gender of the subject and that the noun itself does not change according to gender.
Nouns with the following endings have this behavior: -ista, -ía, -èta, -iàtra, -ènte, -nauta.
| Lo analista / La analista | The analyst |
| Lo spia / La spia | The spy |
| Lo studiante / La studiante | The student |
| Lo atlèta / La atlèta | The athlete |
| Lo psichiàtra / La psichiàtra | The psychiatrist |
| Lo agènte / La agènte | The agent |
| Lo cliènte / La cliènte | The client |
| Lo astronauta / La astronauta | The astronaut |
| Lo presidènte / La presidènte / La presidènta | The president |
In the case of the word "presidènte", both "presidènte" and "presidènta" are acceptable options to refer to a female president, depending on the Romance language.
Other nouns without a specific ending also have this behavior.
| Lo soldato / La soldato | The soldier |
| Lo testimòne / La testimòne | The witness |
| Lo júdece / La júdece | The judge |
| Lo pilòta / La pilòta | The pilot |
Changing Gender & Unique Noun Endings
To change a masculine noun ending in -o into a feminine noun, replace the ending with -a.
| Lo púero / La púera | The boy / The girl |
| Lo enfermèro / La enfermèra | The nurse |
| Lo politsario / La politsaria | The police officer |
This concept also applies to nouns ending in -e, such as those ending in -one, -tore or -ese.
| Lo professore / La professora | The teacher |
| Lo doctore / La doctora | The doctor |
| Lo sennîore / La sennîora | The gentleman / The lady |
| Lo francese / La francesa | The French person (male) / The French person (female) |
| Lo leone / La leona | The lion |
Some words have not only feminine forms, but use a unique feminine suffix.
| Lo actore / La actrice | The actor / The actress |
| Lo rege / La regina | The king / The queen |
| Lo cane / La cannîa / La cannîetta | The dog |
The word “cannîa” can be offensive in Italy, so it may be better to use the alternative “cannîetta” to refer to a female dog.
Words Differentiated by Gender
Some nouns look the same, but have a different meaning depending on the gender.
| Lo capitale | La capitale | The capital (money) / The capital (city) |
| Lo fine | La fine | The end (purpose) / The end (final point) |
| Lo fronte | La fronte | The front (military) / The forehead |
| Lo radio | La radio | The radio (device) / Radio (radiocommunication) |
Different Words Entirely
Some nouns for people or animals have different words for the masculine form and feminine form.
| Lo hòmene | La fémena | The man / The woman |
| Lo patre | La matre | The father / The mother |
| Lo fratre | La sorore | The brother / The sister |
| Lo cognato | La nòra | The son-in-law / The daughter-in-law |