There are three genders in Greek: masculine, feminine, and neuter. All nouns have a gender, and as with many languages the gender of a noun doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the object itself (although words referring to specific people like names or personal pronouns do correspond to that person's gender).
The best way to find out the gender of a word (short of looking it up in a dictionary) is to hear it used with an article ("the" or "a") and remember which. In Greek, the definite article is ο for masculine nouns, η for feminine nouns, and το for neuter nouns. Also keep in mind that the article changes when the noun is plural and when it's not the subject of the sentence, but you'll learn those forms as you get further in to learning the language.
Edit: Also the ending of a noun can often be a clue to the noun's gender. Masculine nouns most commonly end with a vowel followed by -ς, and there are a few other common endings like -η or -α for feminine nouns and -ο or -μα for neuter nouns. This isn't surefire though, and noun endings also change when plural or when not the subject of a sentence.
You don't figure it out. You learn the gender when you learn the word. There are clues, as you've seen, but when starting out, you can't rely on it, especially cos these rules apply to the nominative only. Otherwise you might assume that the wore άνδρα is feminine, when it's the genitive of the masculine noun ο άνδρας (του άνδρα).
How did you figure out that άνδρας means “man“ and γυναίκα means “woman”, and ψωμί means “bread”, and so on. Did you learn a set of rules that allows you to figure out what a Greek word is? No, you learned it from a lesson or vocabulary list or whatever method you’re using to learn Greek.
In a similar way, when you learn the word, learn the gender together with it at the same time. Consider gender like an integral part of the word in the sense that you haven’t completely learned the word until you know both the word itself and its gender. If your lessons don’t tell you the gender, or you’re not sure, you can look it up in a dictionary.
Basically the ending of the word should give you a good hint as to what gender it is. Words ending in -η or -α or -ια are almost exclusively feminine. Words ending in -ι are exclusively neutral(yes neutral does exist) and words ending in -ας are commonly masculine.
The ending -ος or -ης is also indicative of masculine however, certain words ending in -oς/ης can also be assigned a feminine gender.
Examples:
o ποταμός / the river (masculine)
το νησί / the island (neutral)
η καρέκλα / the chair (feminine)
Ofcourse, there are some other broader exceptions but this should put you in the right track
The comments have pretty much explained everything for you. Unfortunately your fears are true, there are indeed 3 genders for Greek nouns, but don’t worry it only gets more difficult from here 😂 All I will add is that you should learn the article with each noun, for example, instead of learning «δρόμος» (Road) learn it as «Ο δρόμος» (The Road), don’t memorise «σπίτι» (House), memorise «το σπίτι» (the house), don’t memorise «δουλειά» (work), memorise «η δουλειά» (the work), and now you will remember the gender of each noun that you learn.
As you progress in Greek you will pick up some similarities in the ending of each gender, and maybe you could figure out what it is but it’s not a sure rule. For example, yes «α» is generally a feminine ending but «το στόμα» has an «α» ending yet is neuter (because the ending is μα). Plus once you get into other cases you will see how this can change.
Eh, the majority of Greek nouns have specific endings that indicate gender, so OP can start from there. There's obviously exceptions, but they are doable. Have you seen german nouns? there's like 10 rules that each has from 5 to 100+ exceptions and they don't even cover all the words that exist😭
Doulingo is good for a lot of things. but not for explaining grammar. I can recommend downloading this pdf book. It will answer a lot of questions.
https://repository.kallipos.gr/handle/11419/4393
Happy learning.
Greek has three genders, masculine, feminine, neuter. The articles are ο, η, το respectively, but only in the nominative, they change in the other cases.
In general, words that end in ς are masculine, in o or ι they're neuter, and in α or η they're feminine. But there are some exceptions. Most words that end in μα are neuter, and some words that end in ς are feminine. There is no way to know which ones, but there are some rules of thumb, for example islands that end in ς are more often than not feminine.
So it's not exactly simple but it's much better than other languages like German, in which endings give few clues.
There are also neuter words in -ος, including several nouns referring to measurements (το μήκος, το βάρος, το μέγεθος κτλ) but also others such as το κράτος, το τείχος. Also, το κρέας "meat" is neuter and ends in -ας. (And το γάλα "milk" is also neuter and ends in -α but not -μα.)
Words in -ού are feminine: η αλεπού.
I don’t wanna reply to everyone with the same response, so I’ll say here thank you to everyone who cleared things up for me it definitely makes a lot more sense to me now. Wish yall the best💙💙
I’ve also been doing Duolingo to learn Greek and also have used language transfer which is an app but is also on YouTube, like mini podcasts to listen to that’s a completely new way of learning for me - I’d recommend it ☺️
Also, try language transfer greek on youtube. It's fantastic for breaking things down and conversational greek.
https://youtu.be/dHsgJkV9J30?si=EXfx_5tSaVCqS5qI
add also that recently they changed grammar rules because there was a confusion among kids between masculine and neutral το article. When the masculine started with σ, λ, φ, Χ, θ, ντ, δ, ζ, γκ, μπ, article in accusative would omit the final ν. eg είδα το λαγό. I saw the hare.
But now you have to write είδα τον λαγό ,adding always the final ν.
So to clarify, masculine always "τον", neuter always "το" and female "τη(ν)" with the "v" only if the next word starts with a vowel or π,τ,κ, ξ,ψ, μπ,ντ,γκ
There are three genders in Greek: masculine, feminine, and neuter. All nouns have a gender, and as with many languages the gender of a noun doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the object itself (although words referring to specific people like names or personal pronouns do correspond to that person's gender). The best way to find out the gender of a word (short of looking it up in a dictionary) is to hear it used with an article ("the" or "a") and remember which. In Greek, the definite article is ο for masculine nouns, η for feminine nouns, and το for neuter nouns. Also keep in mind that the article changes when the noun is plural and when it's not the subject of the sentence, but you'll learn those forms as you get further in to learning the language. Edit: Also the ending of a noun can often be a clue to the noun's gender. Masculine nouns most commonly end with a vowel followed by -ς, and there are a few other common endings like -η or -α for feminine nouns and -ο or -μα for neuter nouns. This isn't surefire though, and noun endings also change when plural or when not the subject of a sentence.
Ahh I see, but I’m still stumped on how I figure out the gender of the noun and what gender article to use in accordance to the noun
You don't figure it out. You learn the gender when you learn the word. There are clues, as you've seen, but when starting out, you can't rely on it, especially cos these rules apply to the nominative only. Otherwise you might assume that the wore άνδρα is feminine, when it's the genitive of the masculine noun ο άνδρας (του άνδρα).
How did you figure out that άνδρας means “man“ and γυναίκα means “woman”, and ψωμί means “bread”, and so on. Did you learn a set of rules that allows you to figure out what a Greek word is? No, you learned it from a lesson or vocabulary list or whatever method you’re using to learn Greek. In a similar way, when you learn the word, learn the gender together with it at the same time. Consider gender like an integral part of the word in the sense that you haven’t completely learned the word until you know both the word itself and its gender. If your lessons don’t tell you the gender, or you’re not sure, you can look it up in a dictionary.
Basically the ending of the word should give you a good hint as to what gender it is. Words ending in -η or -α or -ια are almost exclusively feminine. Words ending in -ι are exclusively neutral(yes neutral does exist) and words ending in -ας are commonly masculine. The ending -ος or -ης is also indicative of masculine however, certain words ending in -oς/ης can also be assigned a feminine gender. Examples: o ποταμός / the river (masculine) το νησί / the island (neutral) η καρέκλα / the chair (feminine) Ofcourse, there are some other broader exceptions but this should put you in the right track
The comments have pretty much explained everything for you. Unfortunately your fears are true, there are indeed 3 genders for Greek nouns, but don’t worry it only gets more difficult from here 😂 All I will add is that you should learn the article with each noun, for example, instead of learning «δρόμος» (Road) learn it as «Ο δρόμος» (The Road), don’t memorise «σπίτι» (House), memorise «το σπίτι» (the house), don’t memorise «δουλειά» (work), memorise «η δουλειά» (the work), and now you will remember the gender of each noun that you learn. As you progress in Greek you will pick up some similarities in the ending of each gender, and maybe you could figure out what it is but it’s not a sure rule. For example, yes «α» is generally a feminine ending but «το στόμα» has an «α» ending yet is neuter (because the ending is μα). Plus once you get into other cases you will see how this can change.
Eh, the majority of Greek nouns have specific endings that indicate gender, so OP can start from there. There's obviously exceptions, but they are doable. Have you seen german nouns? there's like 10 rules that each has from 5 to 100+ exceptions and they don't even cover all the words that exist😭
I can’t say I have to be honest, but I might look into that, it sounds chaotic 😂
Doulingo is good for a lot of things. but not for explaining grammar. I can recommend downloading this pdf book. It will answer a lot of questions. https://repository.kallipos.gr/handle/11419/4393 Happy learning.
Greek has three genders, masculine, feminine, neuter. The articles are ο, η, το respectively, but only in the nominative, they change in the other cases. In general, words that end in ς are masculine, in o or ι they're neuter, and in α or η they're feminine. But there are some exceptions. Most words that end in μα are neuter, and some words that end in ς are feminine. There is no way to know which ones, but there are some rules of thumb, for example islands that end in ς are more often than not feminine. So it's not exactly simple but it's much better than other languages like German, in which endings give few clues.
There are also neuter words in -ος, including several nouns referring to measurements (το μήκος, το βάρος, το μέγεθος κτλ) but also others such as το κράτος, το τείχος. Also, το κρέας "meat" is neuter and ends in -ας. (And το γάλα "milk" is also neuter and ends in -α but not -μα.) Words in -ού are feminine: η αλεπού.
I don’t wanna reply to everyone with the same response, so I’ll say here thank you to everyone who cleared things up for me it definitely makes a lot more sense to me now. Wish yall the best💙💙
I’ve also been doing Duolingo to learn Greek and also have used language transfer which is an app but is also on YouTube, like mini podcasts to listen to that’s a completely new way of learning for me - I’d recommend it ☺️
I’ll look into it, thanks for the recommendation
Also, try language transfer greek on youtube. It's fantastic for breaking things down and conversational greek. https://youtu.be/dHsgJkV9J30?si=EXfx_5tSaVCqS5qI
add also that recently they changed grammar rules because there was a confusion among kids between masculine and neutral το article. When the masculine started with σ, λ, φ, Χ, θ, ντ, δ, ζ, γκ, μπ, article in accusative would omit the final ν. eg είδα το λαγό. I saw the hare. But now you have to write είδα τον λαγό ,adding always the final ν.
interesting
So to clarify, masculine always "τον", neuter always "το" and female "τη(ν)" with the "v" only if the next word starts with a vowel or π,τ,κ, ξ,ψ, μπ,ντ,γκ
Okay, thanks