Difference between revisions of "Language/Bengali/Grammar/Gender"

Revision as of 15:56, 22 March 2023

Bengali Grammar → Nouns → Gender

As a Bengali language teacher, I have taught Bengali grammar for 20 years. In this lesson, we will focus on identifying genders in Bengali nouns and their modifiers. This lesson is a part of the "Complete 0 to A1 Bengali Course".

Bengali Nouns

In Bengali, nouns are either masculine, feminine, or neuter genders. However, unlike English, there is no distinction of gender in words like "he" or "she."

The gender of a noun is not always determined by its biological gender. For example, "girl" is a feminine noun, but "Hijra," a community in Bangladesh, is also feminine, despite not necessarily referring to biological females.

Gender Identification in Bengali Nouns

In Bengali, nouns do not have a specific marker to indicate their gender. Therefore, identifying gender in Bengali nouns can be tricky.

However, there are some general rules:

- Most words that end with "a" are masculine. - Words that describe masculine individuals or entities are masculine nouns. - Most words that end with "i" or "shri" ("শ্রী" in Bengali) are feminine. - Words that describe feminine individuals or entities are feminine nouns. - A few words ending with "o" are neuter gender.

For example:

Bengali	Pronunciation	English
রাজা (raja)	rɑdzɑ	King
রানী (rani)	rani	Queen
আম বালিশ (am balish)	am bɔlis	My pillow
মেয়ে (meye)	meːje	Girl

Please note that the above rules only apply in some cases, so it's best to learn the gender of specific words.

Gender Identification in Bengali Modifiers

Bengali modifiers, such as adjectives or articles, must agree with the gender of the noun they modify.

Articles like "একটি" (ekti - a/an) and "একটা" (ekta - a/an) do not have gender, but adjectives and possessive pronouns must agree with the gender of the noun that they modify.

For example, "মটরশুটি (motorshuti - motor car)" is a feminine noun. Therefore, "আমার নতুন মটরশুটি সুন্দর" (Amar notun motorshuti sundor - My new motor car is beautiful) is correct, but "আমার নতুন মটরশুটি সুন্দর (Amar notun motorshuti sundor - My new motor car is handsome) is not correct because "sundor" is a feminine adjective.

Exceptions

Exceptions exist for some words that do not fit the rules mentioned earlier. For instance:

- "লিঙ্গ" (lingo) meaning gender, is a neuter gender word. - Some words are common gender like "মানুষ" (manush - human) that can be either masculine or feminine.

Conclusion

Understanding the gender of Bengali nouns and their modifiers is essential in forming correct sentences. Knowing the gender of a word will help learners use adjectives and pronouns correctly. As a beginner, it's best to focus on learning words and genders together.

In the next lesson, we will learn about plural nouns in Bengali.

Table of Contents - Bengali Course - 0 to A1

Course Presentation

Basics

Numbers

Sentence Construction

Nouns

Adjectives

Culture and Society

History and Literature

Arts and Music

Family and Relationships

Everyday Life

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Adverbs

Geography

Work and Employment

Interrogative Sentences

Shopping

Popular Bengali Sayings

Related Lessons

Sources

Videos

Gender In English Grammar (in Bengali) । Types of Gender ...

English Grammar Change of Gender part-1 In Bengali - YouTube

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 * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_grammar Bengali grammar - Wikipedia]
 * [https://www.quora.com/Is-Bengali-a-gender-neutral-language Is Bengali a gender neutral language? - Quora]
+==Videos==
+===Gender In English Grammar (in Bengali) । Types of Gender ...===
+<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG8d3pkWt7k</youtube>
+===English Grammar Change of Gender part-1 In Bengali - YouTube===
+<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1HgA4F2hGU</youtube>
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