-in-

-in-: Female

Level 2

-in- makes a word female.

How It Works

Word	With -in-	Meaning
frato	fratino	brother, sister
knabo	knabino	boy, girl
patro	patrino	father, mother
kato	katino	cat, female cat

The part -in- goes between the root and the ending: frat·in·o is brother · female · noun. Esperanto builds the word for a woman from the word for a man, so you learn one word and get the other.

Some roots are neutral and do not say whether the person is male or female. Amiko, kato and gasto are examples. For them, -in- is only added when you want to show that the person or animal is female: amikino is a female friend.

The root already means a male in frato, patro and knabo, so a female always needs -in-.

Examples (4)

Mi havas fraton kaj fratinon.
I have a brother and a sister.
Fratinon is frato with -in- and the object ending -n.
La knabo kaj la knabino legas.
The boy and the girl are reading.
Knabino names the girl.
Mia patrino loĝas en Hispanujo, sed mia patro loĝas en Francio.
My mother lives in Spain, but my father lives in France.
Patrino is patro with -in-.
Ana estas mia amikino.
Ana is my friend.
Amiko is neutral, and amikino shows that Ana is a woman.

How It Connects

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-in-Level 2-in-: Female

Learn This First

The ending -in- is a small part added inside a word.

One Root, Many Words
Know that parts build words from one root, because -in- goes before the ending: frato, fratino.
Level 2

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Patterns that build on this one.

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