Language/Georgian/Grammar/Gender

Georgian Grammar - Gender

Hi Georgian learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will be covering the topic of gender in Georgian. Understanding the concept of grammatical gender is important to properly identify and use the correct articles, adjectives, and nouns, which vary in form in relation to gender.

With the completion of this lesson, consider investigating these related pages: Pronouns & Simple Prepositions.

Gender in Georgian

In Georgian, there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Unlike many Indo-European languages, Georgian does not have neuter gender. The gender of a noun is important for proper sentence construction, which is why it's important to correctly identify the gender of a noun.

An important distinction to note is that the gender of a noun is not necessarily related to its biological gender. For example, the word "mother" is masculine in Georgian (მამა), while the word "father" is feminine (დედა).

Masculine Gender

Nouns belonging to the masculine gender usually end in -ი (-i) in the nominative case. For example:

Georgian	Pronunciation	English
კაცი	k’atsi	man
ძმა	dzma	brother
მამა	mama	father

When masculine nouns end in -ა (-a), they behave as exception which is usually derived from verb roots.

Feminine Gender

Nouns belonging to the feminine gender usually end in -ი (-i) in the nominative case. For example:

Georgian	Pronunciation	English
ქალი	k’ali	woman
დედა	deda	mother
სახლი	saxli	house

When feminine nouns end in -ე (-e), they behave as exceptions.

Exceptions

Just like in any language, there are always exceptions to the rules. In Georgian, there are some nouns belonging to the masculine gender which have -ა (-a) as their nominative ending. Similarly, there are some feminine nouns which end in -ე (-e). Here are some examples:

Georgian	Pronunciation	English
მამა	mama	father
ბები	bebi	baby
სამეზო	samezo	restaurant

Practice

To practice identifying the gender of nouns, try creating simple sentences with the following nouns:

Georgian	Pronunciation	English
კაცი	k’atsi	man
ქალი	k’ali	woman
ძმა	dzma	brother
დედა	deda	mother
სახლი	saxli	house

For example:

• Person 1: კაცი (k’atsi)
• Person 2: ეს კაცი მაცხოვრებელია. (es k’atsi machxovrebelia) (This man is a teacher.)

Conclusion

Having a basic understanding of Georgian grammatical gender will help with constructing proper sentences when using adjectives and articles. To further improve your Georgian grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!

For more information on Georgian grammar, check out the Grammar page on the Georgian page on Wikipedia.

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➡ If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
➡ Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎

Sources

• Gender Studies in English, Turkish and Georgian Languages in ...
• Georgian grammar - Wikipedia
• Georgian language has no gender prejudice, get it out of your head ...

Well done on mastering this lesson! Don't miss these related pages to expand your knowledge: Adjective Agreement & “to be” ყოფნა Present Tense.

Other Lessons

• Plurals
• The postposition of the Instrumental
• The adverbial case
• Third person pronouns
• Infinitives
• The Ergative Case
• Derivation
• The Conjugation System
• Types of Verbs
• Conditional Mood