Common Masculine and Feminine Forms

Level 1

Feminine forms often end in -a, but Catalan has no general masculine -o rule.

How It Works

Learn each noun or adjective with its actual forms. Maco/maca illustrates -o/-a, but alt/alta, negre/negra and català/catalana follow other patterns. Many masculine words end in a consonant or -e; some adjectives do not change for gender.

Several common pairs change a stem consonant: amic/amiga, nebot/neboda, blau/blava and europeu/europea. Blanc/blanca keeps c; públic/pública also keeps c. Before -es, spelling adjusts to preserve sound: blanques and públiques. Do not invent a universal -ic to -iga change.

Some stressed-vowel forms add n: català/catalana, cosí/cosina, lleó/lleona, comú/comuna. These are patterns to learn, not a rule for every vowel-final word. In many Central pronunciations, the final r of fuster is silent but the r of fustera is heard; other varieties pronounce the masculine r too.

Examples (3)

  1. És un noi maco i una noia maca.

    They are a nice boy and a nice girl.

  2. La meva neboda és catalana.

    My niece is Catalan.

  3. Porta una camisa blava.

    She is wearing a blue shirt.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Common Masculine and Feminine FormsLevel 1

Learn This First

Recognize masculine and feminine adjective agreement.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.