Nouns that are neuter in English can be masculine or feminine in Latin. The gender of all other words is more difficult because there is no biological sex associated with them.
Words that naturally refer to females are feminine, such as femina (woman), puella (girl), or regina (queen). Words that naturally refer to males are masculine, such as vir (man), puer (boy), or rex (king). The gender of Latin words based on biological sex is easy to identify. However, the rest have a gender associated with them artificially even where no biological sex is indicated. Like English, some of these parts of speech have a natural gender that is based on biological sex. Latin nouns are masculine, feminine, or neuter. Since book does not imply a gender, the pronoun it is used rather than he or she. Luckily, all other nouns that do not indicate a biological sex are considered neuter as in: The same is true of the word him, rather than her. Therefore, the pronoun must be masculine. The pronoun he, rather than she or it, is used in direct references to Michael. Michael is naturally a masculine noun because it almost always refers to a boy or man. When he came home, Alice was happy to see him. This is important when using pronouns to refer to other nouns. For example, the word girl has a natural feminine gender, and boy has a natural masculine gender. However, whereas English nouns do not have a natural gender classification, they do have a gender based on biological sex. Nouns, pronouns, and possessive adjectives all have a gender. Gender in EnglishĬonsciously unknown to many native English speakers, gender of words is a part of proper English grammar. Second, failure to memorize the gender of words from the beginning proves disastrous later in intermediate and advanced Latin courses of study. First, it gives native-English speakers a difficult time because they are not used to thinking of inanimate objects as having a gender. While the gender of some of these parts of speech is obvious, others are not. Include nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that may be masculine, feminine, or neuter. Unlike English, the gender of a Latin word is necessary to apply the various grammatical rules.
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