Gender of Nouns

Level 1

The gender belongs to the noun, so learn the two together.

How It Works

You cannot always guess a noun's gender from its meaning, so learn the pair: article and noun.

MasculineFeminine
lo cap (the head)la man (the hand)
lo solelh (the sun)la luna (the moon)
lo jorn (the day)la nuèch (the night)
lo paire (the father)la maire (the mother)
l'amic (the male friend)l'amiga (the female friend)

Many nouns for people have a pair of forms: lo gat and la gata, l'amic and l'amiga. Others use two different words: lo fraire and la sòrre.

The gender often matches French, Spanish and Catalan, but not always. For example, milk is masculine in Occitan: lo lach. When you meet a new noun, check its article before you move on.

The next two entries give endings that help you guess.

Examples (5)

  1. lo cap

    the head

    Cap is masculine.

  2. la man

    the hand

    Man is feminine, though it ends in a consonant.

  3. lo solelh

    the sun

    Solelh is masculine.

  4. la luna

    the moon

    Luna is feminine.

  5. lo jorn

    the day

    Jorn is masculine.

Common Mistakes

  • Giving a noun the gender of the Catalan or Spanish word.

    la lach
    lo lach

    Milk is masculine in Occitan, though it is feminine in Catalan and Spanish.

How It Connects

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

Gender of NounsLevel 1

Learn This First

A noun's gender is learned together with its article, so lo and la come first.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

lola