In Czech there are three genders: masculinum, feminimum and neutrum. Gender of nouns must be learned, unfortunatelly, by heart. But there are some tendencies that may help to remember the gender.
NOUNS
Basic rule (valid for 66 % of Czech nouns) is following:
- nouns ending at consonant are mostly macsulines (student, muž, pán, stůl, pes, chléb, počítač)
- nouns ending at the vowel A are mostly feminines (žena, kočka, Eva, taška, škola, sobota, láska)
- nouns ending at the vowel O are mostly neuters (město, Brno, pivo, sako, maso)
- nouns ending at the vowel Í or Ý are mostly neuters (pondělí, úterý, náměstí, nádraží)
- nouns ending at vowel E are mostly feminines or neuters (F: nemocnice, košile, Marie, N: moře, kuře, letiště, parkoviště)
Nouns denoting persons are mostly masculines and feminines and we use the gender according to the natural gender. E.g. – táta, fotbalista, kolega, soudce, správce – masculinum This rule works only with 66 % of nouns. For example we can find a lot of nouns ending at consonant that are feminines (skříň, postel, myš, tramvaj, kancelář). Again, these must be learnt by heart.
ADJECTIVES
When you know a gender of a noun, you can add adjective in correct form:
- dobrÝ – masculinum (malý, studený, modrý, bohatý) – ending at Ý
- dobrÁ – femininum (malá, studená, modrá, bohatá) – ending at Á
- dobrÉ – neutrum (malé, studené, modré, bohaté) – ending at É
Second type of adjectives with ending at Í is always the same (moderní počítač, kvalitní kabelka, lepší auto). Gender is very important for declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals.
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