Language/Serbian/Grammar/Gender
Gender ( Rod imenice )
Serbian language has three genders: masculine ( muški rod ), feminine ( ženski rod ) and neuter ( srednji rod ) . If you wonder how you will know the gender of a noun one of solution is to look it up in the dictionary and remember it. But there are some rules which can help you determine the gender of the noun:
- musculine nouns usually end in a consonant ( imenice muškog roda se obično završavaju konsonantom). But
- some masculine nouns end in - o, and -e, usually masculine proper names. ( neke imenice muškog roda se završavaju na -o i na -e, to su obično muška vlastita imena),
- some masculine nouns end in -a ( neke imenice muškog roda se završavaju na -a )
Examples: prijatelj ( friend), lekar ( doctor), učitelj ( teacher), otac ( father), sin ( son), deda ( grandfather), prozor ( window), mrav ( ant), lav ( lion), slon ( elephant)
kamen ( stone), Marko, Slavko, Djordje (proper names), sudija ( judge), vođa ( leader).
- feminine nouns usually end in - a, (imenice ženskog roda se obično završavaju na -a).
Examples: žena ( woman), majka ( mother), baka ( grandmother), ćerka ( daughter), olovka ( pen), mačka ( cat), kiša ( rain), suknja ( skirt), žirafa ( giraffe), lutka ( doll), lopta (ball), sveska ( notebook), knjiga ( book), trava ( grass)
- neuter nouns end in -e and -o, ( imenice srednjeg roda se završavaju na -e i - o )
Examples: dete ( child), more ( sea), selo ( village), ime ( name), pile ( chicken), cveće ( flowers), polje ( field), jezero ( lake), pero ( feather), lišće ( leaves), ćebe ( blanket), drvo ( tree), sunce ( sun), jagnje ( lamb).
Feminine singular noun can never end in -o or -e, and neuter singular noun can never end in -a or a consonant.
Also this can help you determine the gender of the noun :
jednina (singular) množina (plural)
taj ( muški rod, masculine) ti
ta (ženski rod, feminine) te
to ( srednji rod, neuter) ta
Example:
taj mrav - ti mravi
ta lutka - te lutke
to dete - ta deca