Gramatică · Substantivul și grupul nominal · A1 · 12 min

Gender

Two genders from Latin's three — Romanian kept a neuter — and the words the sisters disagree on.

Deocamdată, explicațiile de aici sunt în engleză; exemplele sunt în toate limbile.

Latin had three genders; the Western sisters kept two. The neuter collapsed because its typical endings sounded like masculine ones, so most neuters became masculine: VĪNUM 'wine' and TEMPUS 'time' gave vino, vin, vino, vinho, vi and tiempo, temps, tempo, tempo, temps. But some neuter plurals in -A looked like feminine singulars and were reanalyzed as such: FOLIA 'leaves' became a single feminine leaf — hoja, feuille, foglia, folha, fulla. Romanian alone kept a third gender for nouns: its vin and timp are neuter.

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
usually masculine	-o: el libro	-age, -ment, -eau: le voyage, le moment	-o: il libro	-o: o livro	consonant: un lup (or n.: un scaun)	consonant: el gat, el llop
usually feminine	-a: la casa	-tion, -té, -ure: la nation, la santé	-a: la casa	-a: a casa	-ă, -a: o casă	-a: la casa
either	-e or consonant: el puente, la noche	-e: le livre, la table	-e: il ponte, la notte	-e or consonant: o pente, a noite, a flor	-e: un frate, o carte	-e or consonant: el llibre, la nit

Endings are reliable in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, weaker in Catalan and Romanian, weak in French

Same word, different gender

English	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
sea	el mar	la mer	il mare	o mar	marea (f.)	el mar
milk	la leche	le lait	il latte	o leite	laptele (n.)	la llet
blood	la sangre	le sang	il sangue	o sangue	sângele (n.)	la sang
salt	la sal	le sel	il sale	o sal	sarea (f.)	la sal
honey	la miel	le miel	il miele	o mel	mierea (f.)	la mel
end	el fin	la fin	la fine	o fim	—	la fi
value	el valor	la valeur	il valore	o valor	valoarea (f.)	el valor
heat	el calor	la chaleur	il calore	o calor	—	la calor
pain	el dolor	la douleur	il dolore	a dor	—	el dolor

Romanian shown with its definite article; a dash means it uses another word

Surorile

Why French -eur nouns are feminine

Latin abstract nouns in -OR (COLŌREM, DOLŌREM, VALŌREM, CALŌREM) were masculine, and Spanish and Italian kept them so. In the Gallo-Romance area they drifted to feminine, and French carried the shift almost all the way: la couleur, la douleur, la valeur, la chaleur, la peur. A few, such as honneur, labeur and amour, are masculine today (bonheur and malheur are not -or nouns at all: their heur comes from AUGURIUM 'omen'). The neighbours caught some of it: Catalan says la calor but el dolor, Portuguese a cor and a dor but o calor. Spanish felt the same pull: la calor and la color still survive in rural speech, and el mar has a feminine double, la mar, in the language of sailors and poets. In the West, the Latin neuter lives on as a gender mainly in pronouns — Spanish lo bueno, esto, eso; French ce, cela; Italian ciò; Portuguese isto, isso; Catalan això. Romanian kept it for nouns.

Italian's neuter fossils: plurals in -a

A small set of Italian masculine nouns switch to a feminine plural in -a: l'uovo, le uova. This -a is the Latin neuter plural (OVUM, OVA) living on, and it spread to a few nouns that were never neuter. Many are body parts that come in pairs or sets. The article and adjectives turn feminine with it: le uova fresche, le braccia stanche. Some keep both plurals with different meanings: i bracci (of a river, a lamp) but le braccia (of a person); i muri (walls) but le mura (city walls).

Singular (m.)	Plural (f.)	Meaning
l'uovo	le uova	egg
il braccio	le braccia	arm
il dito	le dita	finger
il labbro	le labbra	lip
il ginocchio	le ginocchia	knee
il lenzuolo	le lenzuola	bedsheet
il paio	le paia	pair

Romanian: a living neuter

What Italian keeps as a handful of fossils, Romanian turned into a whole gender. A neuter noun behaves as masculine in the singular and as feminine in the plural: un scaun nou 'a new chair', două scaune noi 'two new chairs' — two is două, the feminine form. Its plurals end in -e or in -uri, an ending that goes back to Latin neuter plurals in -ORA such as TEMPORA. Even the egg matches Italian: ou, ouă, as uovo, uova.

Singular (n.)	Plural (n.)	Meaning
un ou	două ouă	egg
un braț	două brațe	arm
un scaun	două scaune	chair
un tren	două trenuri	train
un timp	timpuri	time, tense

Il mare è calmo.
El mar está tranquilo.
La mer est calme.
O mar está calmo.
Marea e calmă.
El mar està tranquil.
The sea is calm.
Masculine in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan, feminine in French and Romanian — and the adjective follows.
Il latte è caldo.
La leche está caliente.
Le lait est chaud.
O leite está quente.
Laptele e fierbinte.
La llet està calenta.
The milk is hot.
Spanish and Catalan made LAC feminine; French, Italian and Portuguese masculine; Romanian lapte is neuter.
Questo colore è bellissimo.
Este color es precioso.
Cette couleur est magnifique.
Esta cor é linda.
Culoarea asta e superbă.
Aquest color és preciós.
This color is gorgeous.
French couleur, Portuguese cor and Romanian culoare are feminine: cette, esta, asta.
Mi fanno male le braccia.
Me duelen los brazos.
J'ai mal aux bras.
Estou com dor nos braços.
Mă dor brațele.
Em fan mal els braços.
My arms hurt.
il braccio, le braccia: masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural — exactly how Romanian braț, brațe behaves as a neuter.
Compra una dozzina di uova.
Compra una docena de huevos.
Achète une douzaine d'œufs.
Compra uma dúzia de ovos.
Cumpără o duzină de ouă.
Compra una dotzena d'ous.
Buy a dozen eggs.
Italian uova and Romanian ouă both continue the Latin neuter plural OVA.
La foglia cade dall'albero.
La hoja cae del árbol.
La feuille tombe de l'arbre.
A folha cai da árvore.
Frunza cade din copac.
La fulla cau de l'arbre.
The leaf falls from the tree.
FOLIA 'leaves' (neuter plural) became one feminine leaf in five sisters. Romanian has foaie too, but mostly for a sheet of paper; a tree's leaf is frunză.