Latin 7 Grammar GRAMMAR: Gender
Let’s talk about GENDER! What is gender? Do English nouns have gender? Sure! Nouns that represent living things have a natural gender associated with their sex. Complete the following exercises to learn more:
A. NATURAL GENDER – Circle the masculine nouns.
1. a. dad 3. a. aunt 5. a. hen
b. mom b. uncle b. rooster
2. a. brother 4. a. captain 6. a. doe
b. sister b. stewardess b. stag
B. NATURAL GENDER – Circle the feminine nouns.
1. a. she-wolf 3. a. pig 5. a. ewe
b. wolf b. sow b. ram
2. a. grandmother 4. a. lion 6. a. tiger
b. grandfather b. lioness b. tigress
C. NATURAL GENDER – Circle the neuter nouns.
1. a. table 3. a. man 5. a. food
b. woman b. chain b. girl
2. a. aunt 4. a. boy 6. a. radio
b. toy b. folder b. uncle
D. NATURAL GENDER – Given the list of nouns, identify them as masculine (M), feminine (F), or neuter (N). 1. girl ______6. water ______11. chalk ______
2. boy ______7. aunt ______12. uncle ______
3. actor ______8. glasses ______13. son ______
4. tire ______9. actress______14. book ______
5. T.V. ______10. mare ______
E. For the following nouns, identify their gender(s) and explain why you chose that gender(s).
1. car ______
2. boat ______
3. doctor ______
4. nurse ______
5. firefighter ______
6. flight attendant ______
F. Let’s talk about how gender works in Latin!!
A. Read “Nouns and Adjectives: Gender” on pages 34 -35 in your textbook.
B. In Latin, nouns can be thought of as our very BUSY part of speech. Not only can they act as a Subject, Object, Object of a Preposition, Predicate Complement, etc. (however not all at the same time!), their endings can tell us three significant pieces of information: CASE, NUMBER and GENDER.
CASE = Nominative, Genitive, etc. NUMBER = Singular (one) vs. Plural (more than one)
GENDER is what we will focus on today.
The Romans only had three genders for their nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Many of the feminine words we’ve met so far have been in one family or DECLENSION, the First Declension.
i.e. pictūra, Flāvia, puella
First declension nouns look like this in your verba list: o pictūra, pictūrae, f o puella, puellae, f The second word listed, called the GENITIVE SINGULAR, will end in –ae when the noun belongs to the First Declension. Most First Declension nouns are feminine in gender.
Many of our masculine nouns we’ve met so far have been part of another family, the Second Declension. i.e. gallus, porcus, taurus
Second declension nouns of the masculine gender will look like this in your verba list: o gallus, gallī, m o porcus, porcī, m o puer, puerī, m The second word listed, the GENITIVE SINGULAR, will end in –ī when the noun belongs to the Second Declension. Second declension words that end in –us or –r in the nominative singular are usually masculine.
You will soon see nouns of the neuter gender in the Second declension. Second Declension nouns of the neuter gender will look like this in your verba list: o cubiculum, cubiculī, n o auxilium, auxiliī, n o horologium, horologiī, n Second declension words that end in –um in the nominative singular, and –ī in the genitive singular, are always neuter. Then there is a third family, called the Third Declension, where...
we always have to learn the gender of each word on an individual basis.
i.e. arbor (f), aestas (f), animal (n), leo (m)
If you see a noun ending in... you know you probably have a...
-a in the nominative, -ae in the genitive feminine noun
-us or -r in the nominative, -ī in the genitive masculine noun
-um in the nominative, -ī in the genitive neuter noun
-r/x/s/l/o in the nominative, -is in the genitive learn the gender on an individual basis
C. Given a list of Latin nouns in the nominative and genitive singulars, determine the gender of each based on endings. First, box the endings that you see. Second, label the noun with either an M (masculine) or an F (feminine) or an N (neuter). If you can’t tell by the endings alone, put a ? next to it.
1. statua, statuae 7. pater, patris 11. fenestra,
2. cibus, cibī 8. musca, muscae fenestrae
3. ancilla, ancillae 9. elephantus, 12. vōx, vōcis
4. Cornēlia, Cornēliae elephantī 13. vir, virī
5. Davus, Davī 10. donum, donī 14. dux, ducis
6. puer, puerī 15. servus, servī Nota Bene: Third declension nouns can also have grammatical or natural gender. Our animals all have natural gender. For third declension nouns without natural gender, you can look up the gender in the glossary of your textbook. Given a list of Latin Third declension nouns, look up the genders in the glossary of your textbook, and write them next to the noun.
1. clamor, clamōris ____ 4. mater, matris ____ 7. arbor, arboris ____
2. iter, itineris ____ 5. urbs, urbis ____ 8. fragor, fragōris ____
3. princeps, principis ____ 6. nomen, nominis ____ 9. caupo, caupōnis ____
D. When adjectives modify nouns, they must be the same gender, number, and case as the noun. Think of it like a sock: each time you put a sock on, it forms to your foot. If another person puts that same sock on, it will form to their foot. Adjectives are the same! Examples:
puella laeta porcus laetus lupus canus gallīna cana
Nota Bene: Nouns and Adjectives can agree in case, number and gender, but not end in the same letters. Examples: fēles atra lupus ater arbor viridis puella altera porcus alter leo laetus
Given the nominative singulars of nouns you’ve had in your verba lists, write the appropriate form of the adjective ater (m) or atra (f)
1. aquila atra 10. arbor 2. aranea 11. canis (m) 3. taurus 12. lupa 4. leo 13. serpens 5. ursus 14. piscis 6. ursa 15. avis 7. simius 8. equa 9. asinus