Feminine Nouns in -а

Feminine Nouns Ending in a

Level 1Sounds Like ženski rod na -a

Nouns ending in -а are almost always feminine: жена, куќа, книга.

How It Works

Common feminine nouns. жена (woman), мајка (mother), сестра (sister), куќа (house), книга (book), маса (table), вода (water), соба (room), улица (street), историја (history).

What goes with them.

Women's job words. Many words for women end in -ка: студентка (female student), лекарка (female doctor).

Men in -а. A few nouns that name men end in -а but are masculine, such as судија (judge) and колега (colleague). They take masculine adjectives, добар судија, but the article still follows the -а: судијата. See Masculine Nouns in A and O.

Plural. Feminine nouns change -а to -и: жена → жени. See Plural of Feminine Nouns.

Examples (6)

  1. Таа е добра жена.

    She is a good woman.

  2. Имаме нова куќа.

    We have a new house.

  3. Книгата е на масата.

    The book is on the table.

    Both книга and маса take the feminine article -та.

  4. Мојата сестра е студентка.

    My sister is a student.

  5. Водата е студена.

    The water is cold.

  6. Собата е голема.

    The room is big.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the masculine adjective with a feminine noun.

    нов книга
    нова книга

    Книга ends in -а and is feminine, so the adjective ends in -а.

  • Leaving the adjective after е in the masculine form.

    Водата е студен.
    Водата е студена.

    An adjective after е also matches the noun: вода is feminine.

  • Using a feminine adjective with судија when it refers to a man.

    Тој е добра судија.
    Тој е добар судија.

    Судија is a masculine noun, so it takes добар, even though it ends in -а.

How It Connects

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Feminine Nouns in -аLevel 1Feminine Nouns Ending in a

Learn This First

Feminine nouns follow the idea of gender.

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Patterns that build on this one.