2.1. Introduction

2.1.1. What Is a Noun?

A noun is a word that refers to a person, place, thing or idea.

Like in Romance languages, such as in Spanish or Italian, all nouns in Neolatin are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine nouns typically end in -o or -e.

Lo libro	The book
Lo pane	The bread

Feminine nouns typically end in -a.

La casa	The house

2.1.2. What Is Grammatical Gender?

Grammatical gender is a form of categorizing nouns. Neolatin classifies nouns as either masculine or feminine.

Note that grammatical gender is different from natural gender. Grammatical gender is simply a way of categorizing nouns. Natural gender refers to the gender of real life beings, such as people or animals.

The grammatical gender of people or animals is the same as their natural gender. Things, places or ideas do not have natural genders because they are not living beings; because of this, their grammatical gender exists independently of the concept of natural gender.

Furthermore, Neolatin has grammatical agreement. This means that articles and adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe.

Mèo italiano èst bòno.	My Italian is good.

The gender of the user does not affect the gender of the noun. The noun “italiano” is always masculine because it is a language (more about this later). Due to the masculine gender of “italiano”, the possessive adjective “mèo” (“my”) and the adjective “bòno” (“good”) are also masculine.

Below is another example.

Mèa bicicletta èst ràpida.	My bicycle is fast.

The grammatical gender of the noun “bicicletta” is feminine. The gender of the user (male or female) does not change the gender of the noun, nor does it change the adjectives.

Grammatical gender only corresponds to gender like we think in humans when discussing individuals or groups of a specific gender.

Simone èst alto.	Simone is tall.
María èst alta.	Maria is tall.

The natural gender of the noun “Simone” is male. Therefore, the grammatical gender is male. A similar rule applies to María. The natural gender of the noun “María” is female, so the grammatical gender is female.

2.1.3. Gender Quirks

Neuter Gender

The gender for things that are general or unknown is neuter (or “neutral” gender). The ending of -o gives impersonal adjectives and demonstrative pronouns the appearance of having masculine gender, even though, in reality, they are not.

In fact, it is thought that the almost complete loss of the neuter gender in Romance languages is due to the phenomenon of “personification”, where the gender of nouns collapsed into only two categories: masculine and feminine (similar to humans).

In this case, the neuter gender merged with the masculine gender in almost all nouns and is conserved in an impersonal or general sense.

Èst bòno vedere-te.	It is good to see you.
Que èst cuesto?	What is this?

Knowing Gender in Advance

Sometimes the speaker does not know how gender agreement works in a specific sentence until later. Some speakers will first use the masculine form of a demonstrative pronoun or adjective. When they notice the feminine gender of the noun later in the sentence, they may correct themselves and start the sentence again using the correct gender.

❌ Dato la situatione… ➜ ✅ Data la situatione…	Given the situation…
❌ Cuesto èst una bòna idèa. ➜ ✅ Cuesta èst una bòna idèa.	This is a good idea.

2.1.4. Tips for Learning Gender

The reason for why each noun is a certain gender can seem chaotic to some people.

Sometimes a noun inherits its gender from Latin. Some words were borrowed from a language and maintain their original gender, while other borrowed words use a different gender from the original word.

Here are two helpful pieces of advice for learning the gender of nouns:

1. Accept the gender of each noun for what it is.

The grammatical gender of nouns is almost entirely arbitrary. Gender is merely a way of categorizing nouns. Instead of focusing too much on why a noun has a certain gender, focus on the importance of gender in the context of being understood by native speakers of Romance languages.

2. Learn the gender of each noun with the article (ex: “La voce” instead of just “voce”).

Fortunately, the grammatical gender of the majority of nouns follow clear patterns. Learning these patterns in combination with the advice above can make the learning process easier.