Originally posted by: TseDanylo on Duolingo Archived here
Вітаю!
Ukrainian is an East Slavic language spoken primarily in Western and Central Ukraine by 40 million people making it the third most spoken Slavic language by number of native speakers in the world!
If there is any words you don't understand please refer to the glossary
What is gender?
Gender (in linguistics) is a label given to nouns. If you have learned a foreign language before, you have more than likely come across this since most languages have this (such as French, German or Spanish). In Ukrainian, all nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter.
Why do I need to know the gender of nouns?
In Ukrainian, like most gender-based languages, the gender of nouns is very important. It affects things like adjectives, case endings, plurals and sometimes verbs. Using the wrong form of the verb/adjective/etc. with the noun isn't correct. But if you use the wrong gender for the noun, don't worry people will still understand what you mean!
Thankfully, in Ukrainian it's pretty easy to determine what gender the noun is.
How do I tell what gender the noun is?
To tell what gender a noun is, it's pretty easy:
MASCULINE
- If it ends in a consonant; e.g. замок (castle)
- Most male animals, people and concepts; e.g. папа (pope)
FEMININE
- If it ends in а or я; e.g. орхідея (orchid) or країна (country)
- Most female animals, people and concepts; e.g. переможниця ((female) winner)
NEUTER
- If it ends in о, е or a double consonant followed by я; e.g. місто (city), горе (distress), народження (birth)