Two Genders

Foundations

There are only two genders, masculine and feminine. Occitan has no neuter noun.

How It Works

Occitan has two genders. A noun is masculine or feminine, and it keeps that gender. Things have a gender too: lo solelh (the sun) is masculine, and la luna (the moon) is feminine.

The gender decides three kinds of words:

  • the article: lo or un before a masculine noun, la or una before a feminine noun;
  • the adjective: nòu becomes nòva with a feminine noun;
  • the possessive: mon ostal (my house), ma pòrta (my door).

The gender often matches French, Spanish and Catalan, but not always. Learn each noun with its article, as in lo cap (the head) and la man (the hand).

No noun is neuter. The small word aquò (that) stands for an idea or a thing you have not named.

Examples (5)

  1. un ostal nòu

    a new house

    Ostal is masculine, so the article is un and the adjective is nòu.

  2. una pòrta nòva

    a new door

    Pòrta is feminine, so the article is una and the adjective is nòva.

  3. lo solelh

    the sun

    Solelh is masculine, so it takes lo.

  4. la luna

    the moon

    Luna is feminine, so it takes la.

  5. Lo dròlle es pichòt e la dròlla es pichòta.

    The boy is small, and so is the girl.

    The adjective pichòt changes to pichòta with the feminine noun.

How It Connects

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

Two GendersFoundations

Words in This Pattern

ununa