GENDER OF NOUNS – ÐÎÄ ÍÀ ÑÚÙÅÑÒÂÈÒÅËÍÈÒÅ

 

In Bulgarian there are three grammatical genders of the noun - masculine, feminine and neuter.

 

I. Masculine - ìúæêè ðîä (ì.ð.)

Nouns that end in consonant are usually masculine:

ìúæ (múzh - man)

ãðàä (grat - city, town)

áðàò (brat - brother)

åçèê (ezik - language, tongue)

Exceptions:

All nouns that mean male persons are masculine, regardless of their ending:

1.Nouns that end in -a – áàùà (bashta - father).

2.Nouns that end in -ÿ – ñúäèÿ (sadiya - judge).

3.Nouns that end in -o – òàòêî (tatko - dad), äÿäî (dyado - grandfather), ÷è÷î (chicho - uncle).

4.Nouns that end in -e – àòàøå (attache).

Some nouns that end in -è are also masculine – for example – the names of the months – ÿíóàðè (yanuari - January), ôåâðóàðè (fevruari - February), etc., because the word ìåñåö (mesetz - month) is masculine.

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II. Feminine - æåíñêè ðîä (æ.ð.)

Nouns that end in the vowels -a or -ÿ are usually feminine:

æåíà (zhena - woman)

áèðà (bira - beer)

çåìÿ (zemya - earth)

ñòàÿ (staya - room)

èäåÿ (ideya - idea)

Exceptions:

Some nouns that end in consonants are feminine (usually abstract nouns) - âå÷åð (vecher - evening), ïðîëåò (prolet - spring), ìëàäîñò (mladost - youth), ðàäîñò (radost - joy).

A clue: Usually words containing more than one syllable and ending in -îñò are feminine.

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III.Neuter - ñðåäåí ðîä (ñð.ð.)

1.Nouns that end in -o are usually neuter - ñåëî (selo - village), äúðâî (darvo - tree), ïèñìî (pismo - letter).

2. Nouns that end in -e are usually neuter - äåòå (dete - child), ìîðå (more - sea), ó÷èëèùå (uchilishte - school)

3.Some nouns that end in -è, -ó, -þ (usually foreign words in Bulgarian language) are also neuter - òàêñè (taksi - taxi), áèæó (bizhyu - jewel), ìåíþ (menyu - menu).

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!!! Bulgarians usually determine the gender of foreign words or names phonetically.

For example, to order a beer in a restaurant you have to say:

Åäíà áèðà, ìîëÿ (edna bira, molya – one beer please), using the feminine form of the number one (See Cardinal numbers), because the word beer in Bulgarian is in feminine gender. If you want to order a particular trade mark it should be:

Åäíà Êàìåíèöà – feminine, because the word Kamenitza (Bulgarian trade mark) ends in a;

Åäíà Ñòåëà Àðòîà – feminine, because the word Stella ends in a;

Åäèí Õàéíåêåí – masculine, because the word Heineken ends in consonant, etc.
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To summarize:

In Bulgarian every noun has its gender. The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature.

Words like ìúæ (man), áàùà (father) and ÷è÷î (uncle) are masculine and words like æåíà (zhena - woman), ìàéêà (mayka - mother) and ëåëÿ (lelya - aunt) are feminine.
Unfortunately in the majority of the cases there is no way to predict the gender of the noun, using as a clue its meaning.

For example the words of neuter gender are not only objects or animals. Words like ìîìè÷å (momiche - girl), ìîì÷å (momche - boy), äåòå (dete - child) are neuter gender.

At the same time ìàñà (masa - table) is feminine and ñòîë (stol - chair) is masculine.

So, the gender of every word you learn has to be memorized.

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