Language/Standard-estonian/Grammar/Gender

Standard Estonian Grammar - Gender

Hi Standard Estonian learners! 😊

In this lesson, we will discuss one of the essential elements of Estonian grammar - gender. Understanding gender is crucial when speaking or writing Standard Estonian.

Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Questions & Negation and word order.

What is gender in Standard Estonian?

Gender is a grammatical category that reflects the noun's biological gender in some languages. However, in Standard Estonian, there is no gender distinction between animate and inanimate things, as in many Slavic languages.

In Standard Estonian, gender is a grammatical category that assigns specific inflections to nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Therefore, it is based on the word's phonological qualities rather than its biological gender.

In Standard Estonian, there are three genders, as follows:

1. Masculine gender - this gender includes words that end with a consonant or an -e, such as mees (man), laud (table), and kool (school).

2. Feminine gender - this gender includes words that end with -u, -õ, or -e, such as naine (woman), käsi (hand), and taevas (sky).

3. Neutral gender - this gender includes words that end with -o, -e, -n, -t, such as muna (egg), põõsas (bush), jaht (yacht).

Note that the same word may have different genders in different dialects. Still, in Standard Estonian, the assigned gender is consistent, and you need to remember it to use the noun, pronoun, or adjective correctly.

How to recognize the gender of a noun?

Even though some gender categories are not based on any logical rule, there are some patterns you can look at to determine the gender of a noun:

1. Word ending: As mentioned before, specific word endings are characteristic to specific genders. For example, masculine nouns often end in a consonant or -e, feminine nouns in -u, -õ, or -e, and neutral nouns in -o, -t, -e, or -n.

2. Word form: The inflection of a word can be a hint on the gender of the noun. For example, if in the genitive case (in Estonian, the käänded), a feminine noun ends in -a, it is likely to be feminine, whereas in the genitive case, a masculine noun would end in -u or -o.

3. Meaning: Sometimes, you can infer a word's gender from its meaning. For example, most nouns referring to men are masculine, whereas most nouns referring to women are feminine. Similarly, most living beings are either masculine or feminine.

Remember, there is no surefire way to determine the gender of a noun based on word endings. Learning the gender of the noun takes practice and memorization.

Here are some examples to help you understand gender in Standard Estonian:

Standard Estonian	Pronunciation	English
mees	mee-s	man
naine	na-i-ne	woman
laud	laud	table
käsi	ka-si	hand
muna	mu-na	egg
taevas	tae-vas	sky

Gender agreement

When using nouns, pronouns or adjectives, in Estonian, you need to pay attention to gender agreement. This means that the modifiers must agree with the gender of the noun.

For example, in English, you would say "He is a nice man" and "She is a nice woman." In Standard Estonian, you would say "Tema on tore mees" and "Tema on tore naine" respectively.

Similarly, adjectives and other modifiers must agree with the gender of the noun. For example, when describing the color of a masculine object, you would use the adjective roheline (green), as in "roheline laud" (a green table). In contrast, when describing the color of a feminine object, you would use the adjective roheline' või roosiline, as in "roosiline taevas" (a pink sky).

It is essential to remember that gender agreement is necessary in Estonian, and mistakes create confusion or difficulty in communication.

Here is an example dialogue so that you can see gender agreement in context:

• Person 1: Mul on uus laud. (I have a new table.)
• Person 2: Jah, see on väga ilus. (Yes, it's very pretty.)
• Person 1: Ja mu uus metallist tool on ka roheline. (And my new metal chair is also green.)
• Person 2: Kena toon. (Nice hue.)

Conclusion

In this lesson, you learned about gender as a grammatical category in Standard Estonian, including the three genders and gender agreement rules. Knowing the gender of a noun is necessary for proper communication in Estonian.

To improve your Standard Estonian Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!

Sources

• Estonian grammar
• Estonian language
• Grammatical gender
• Noun

Excellent job on conquering this lesson! Consider delving into these related pages: Negation & Noun Cases.

Other Lessons

• Adjectives
• Negation
• How to Use Have
• Articles
• Give your Opinion
• Conditional Mood
• Future Tense
• How to Use Be
• Plurals