Page:Graimear na Gaedhilge.djvu/42
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MASCULINE NOUNS.
42. (a) Names of males are masculine: as fear, a man; flaith, a prince; athair, a father; coileach, a cock.
(b) The names of occupations, offices, &c., peculiar to men, are masculine: as ollamh, a doctor; file, a poet; bárd, a bard; breitheamh, a judge; saighidiúir, a soldier.
(c) Personal agents ending in óir, aire, uidhe (or aidhe, oidhe), or ach are masculine: as sgeuluidhe, a story-teller; bádóir, a boatman.
(d) Diminutives ending in án, and all abstract nouns ending in as or eas, are masculine—e.g.:
| árdán, a hillock. | maitheas, goodness. |
(e) The diminutives ending in ín are usually said to be of the same gender as the noun from which they are derived. Notwithstanding this rule they seem to be all masculine. Cailín, a girl, is masculine[1] i.e. it suffers the same initial changes as a masculine noun, but the pronoun referring to it is feminine. She is a fine girl, Is breágh an cailín í (not é).
(f) Many nouns which end in a consonant or two consonants preceded by a broad vowel are masculine: as ball, a limb; luach, a price; crann, a tree &c.
Exceptions:—(1) All words of two or more syllables ending in acht or óg.
- ↑ Do not confound sex with gender. Gender is decided by grammatical usage only.
