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REFERENCE:  002 All nouns have gender

3/6/2019

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Muški rod, ženski rod, ili srednji rod?

We all know that there are masculine and feminine people and animals.
 
But when you begin learning Croatian, it can be a shock to the system to realise that in Croatian every noun is assigned to be one of masculine gender (muški rod), feminine gender (ženski rod) or neuter gender (srednji rod).
 
For example, the word stol is the name given to the object that English speakers call “table”. It is assigned masculine gender.
 
The noun kuća (house) is feminine gender, and vino (wine) is neuter.


A philosophical thought: So far as I understand, Croatians don’t regard the object that we call a house as feminine, but its name, the noun kuća, is feminine. Someone might correct me?
 
Addendum:
I have since resolved this issue, and discussed it in another post: Do Croatians assign gender to objects?  


It is important to know the gender of nouns because the way that we change masculine nouns according to their case in a sentence (that is, how they decline) is different from the way that feminine nouns change, and the way that we change neuter nouns is different again.

And (Oh, I hate to say this!) there are various “declension types”, or categories, of nouns. Not all masculine nouns, for example, decline in the same way – that is, from type to type, the noun endings are not the same in the various cases. Does that make sense? Hopefully, the list of noun categories listed in the post Nouns: Declension types (not yet available) will clarify things a bit.

Please don’t blame me for the complexity. I didn’t sit down and design the Croatian language. And of course, nobody did that – languages just evolve in irregular ways over long times.

And before you declare that this language is impossible, remember that millions of people seem to manage with it very well.


So how do we know if a noun is muški rod, ženski rod, or srednji rod?

Well, little Croatian kids are learning Croatian, they don’t get taught “rules”: they just come to know. And this tells us that the most important factor might be our extent of using the language – the more the better. It’s all about practice and familiarity.

But there are some “rules” or guidelines.


In my experience, most introductory textbooks give us a rule for telling the gender of nouns. We don’t know it at the time, but these are the “regular nouns”.  And just when you think you have conquered that, they tell us “Oh, by the way, there is another category of nouns that don’t fit those rules: They have their own particular declination endings.” Grrr! Why didn’t you at least tell me about these others before?

And just when you think that you have mastered these ones, along comes “Oh by the way, there is another set of nouns ……….”!!
​

​I try to give an overview of the various categories of nouns in the post Nouns: Declension types (Not yet available). The nouns in each category have a particular gender.
​

​
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  • HOME
    • Navigation: A ROAD MAP
    • Contacts
  • LEARNING CROATIAN
    • CROATIAN: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Kosa, koza, koža
      • 002 Pronouncing 'au'
      • 003 Can language influence behaviour?
      • 004 First day of the week
      • 005 Do Croatians assign gender to objects?
      • 006 Za četiri dana, na dva dana
      • 007 My brain becomes full!
      • 008 Sretan rođendan ti
      • 009 Na kavu, po kavu, za kavu?
      • 010 Until you don't do it
    • CROATIAN: Posts 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Nazvati nekoga, telefonirati nekomu
      • 012 If she were a man ....
      • 013 Streets with two names?
      • 015 Tri, četiri, sad!
      • 016 I feel like crying!
      • 017 I felt like crying, I will feel like crying
    • DAKLE ŽELIŠ BITI KAO PRAVI HRVAT, JE L' DA? HOME >
      • 001 Ovako!
      • 002 Je l' tako?
      • 003 Tako je!
      • 004 Izvoli! Izvolite!
      • 005 Eto!
    • CHALLENGES FOR YOU >
      • 001 Crossword puzzle 1
  • GRAMMAR
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Where are the pronouns?
      • 002 Padeži and noun endings
      • 003 Endings of pronouns and adjectives
      • 004 "u" ili "na" ?
      • 005 The declensions of Tko? and Što?
      • 006 Ja sam na Trgu bana Josipa Jelačića
      • 007 Going and coming: u-iz, but na-sa
      • 008 Sav - All, every
      • 009 Number of subjects and the verb 'biti'
      • 010 Koga nazoveš? Komu telefoniraš?
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Declension of place names
    • GRAMMAR TITBITS - HOME >
      • 001 Dati - dativ
    • GRAMMAR REFERENCE SECTION HOME >
      • 001 Questions that define the case of nouns
      • 002 All nouns have gender
      • 003 Nouns in the nominative case
      • 004 Nouns: Declension categories
      • 005 Declension of regular nouns
  • SAYINGS
    • SAYINGS: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Ne daj se!
      • 002 U tom grmu leži zec!
      • 003 Baš me briga!
      • 004 Mačji kašalj!
      • 005 Što je, tu je!
      • 006 Eto ti ga na!
      • 007 Na licu mjesta
      • 008 Sve si to ti kriv!
  • VOCAB
    • Vocabulary: POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Even dying is not easy!
      • 002 To laugh or to smile?
      • 003 Nahraniti, sahraniti .... schmahraniti
      • 004 Prefixes that modify verb meanings
      • 005 Prefixes on base verb stati
      • 006 Country names - noun or adjective?
      • 007 Names of towns: A grammatical nightmare
      • 008 Countries: What do we call their citizens?
      • 009 Baš
      • 010 What a joke! vic or šala?
    • Vocab THEMES: HOME >
      • 001 In the time of coronavirus
    • Što je korijen riječi?: HOME >
      • 001 Nadimak
      • 002 Zora, prozor, zoran, ….
  • STUFF
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      • 001 Bookara
      • 002 Crossies?
      • 003 Jučer ili sutra?
      • 004 Ućitelji
      • 005 Požuri polako
      • 006 Kakav stil!
      • 007 The people of Magorje
      • 008 Where did the "j" go?
      • 009 koliko je kiše 50 litara po kvadratom metru?
      • 010 The dark side of the moon
    • Vicevi (Jokes)
  • EXPERIENCES
    • EXPERIENCES: POSTS 1 - 10 HOME >
      • 001 Licitarska srca
      • 002 My Aussie accent
      • 003 The upside down SIM card
      • 004 Buying fritule in Split
  • ABOUT CROATIA
    • Republika Hrvatska: HOME >
      • 001 Anthem: LIJEPA NAŠA
      • 002 Map of Croatia
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    • Where/What/Who is that? HOME >
      • Where/What/Who? Pages 1 - 10 >
        • 001 A girl and a bird
        • 002 His left foot
        • 003 A rebel
        • 004 Čuvarica Omiša
        • 005 Giorgio or Juraj?
        • 006 Tovar and friend
        • 007 Up on high
        • 008 On an island
        • 009 Water wonderland
    • REGIONS, CITIES, TOWNS: HOME >
      • ZAGREB: HOME >
        • 001 Zagreb cathedral
        • 002 Advent in Zagreb
        • 003 Interliber book fair
        • 004 On the tramvaj in Zagreb
      • Dalmacija: HOME >
        • BEING AND SPEAKING DALMATIAN: HOME >
          • 001 Molin?
          • 002 Eleven Dalmatian commandments
          • Dalmatinski rječnik HOME >
            • Keywords A - J
            • Keywords K - N
            • Keywords O - R
            • Keywords S - Ž
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      • Zagorje: HOME >
        • 001 Autumn tones
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      • 001 A night at the ballet
  • TKO SAM JA?
    • Tko sam ja? Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 The way we spoke