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Catalan nouns

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Usually, masculine nouns are unmarked, feminine nouns carry the suffix -a; and the plural is marked with the suffix -s, which makes the feminine ending turn into -e-. Thus, the most common declension paradigm for Catalan names is the one that follows:

Gender inflection

The grammatical gender of a Catalan noun does not necessarily correspond with the real-life object's biological sex (or lack thereof). Nouns denoting a person, such as home "man" or dona "woman", generally agree with the natural gender of what is described. However, Catalan assigns gender to nouns without natural gender in arbitrary fashion. For example, the word tamboret ("stool") is masculine, while the word cadira ("chair") is feminine.

Living beings with distinct masculine and feminine forms

Living beings of the same species usually are designed by two nouns: one of masculine grammatical gender for biologically male individuals, and one of feminine grammatical gender for biologically female individuals. Both names, masculine and feminine, are usually only differentiated by their ending; sometimes the second is derived from the first or vice versa. Rarely, both come from different roots.

Formation of the feminine form from the masculine

  • Most times the feminine form is created by appending the suffix -a to the unmarked masculine form.
Noi → noia. Avi → àvia.
"Boy – girl." "Grandfather – grandmother."
  • If the masculine form ends in -t, -p, -f, -s, the addition of the feminine suffix -a may cause these consonants to become voiced to -d-, -b-, -v-, -s-; or not. There are no rules to deduce the change.
  • If the masculine form ends in a stressed vowel, the feminine is created by appending the suffix -na.
Germà → germana
"Brother – sister."
  • Sometimes the feminine form is created by appending the suffix -essa to the unmarked masculine form.
Sacerdot → sacerdotessa.
"Priest – priestess."

Formation of the masculine form from the feminine

  • Sometimes the masculine form is created from the feminine by changing the suffix a for -ot.
Bruixot ← bruixa.
"Wizard – witch."

Living beings with indistinct masculine and feminine forms

  • Sometimes a single noun is used to designate both masculine and feminine beings. To specify the biological gender of the being, the adjectives mascle "male", and femella "female" are used.
El rossinyol. El rossinyol mascle. El rossinyol femella.
" The nightingale." "The male nightingale." "The female nightingale"

Objects, abstract concepts

  • Since objects and abstract concepts have no biological gender, all of them only have one form. The gender of inanimate nouns is assigned arbitrarily. Sometimes the choice may seem contradictory.
La virilitat (f).
"The manliness."
  • Sometimes synonymous words may have different genders.
El televisor (m) – la televisió (f). L'argent (m) – la plata (f)
"The TV." "The silver."

Homophonous words with different genders

  • Some homonymous words may have different genders according to their meaning.
El clau (m) – la clau (f)
"The nail – the key."

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