Grammatical Gender – Non Living Things Posted by Nitin Kumar on Dec 28, 2012 in Hindi Language
Some of our readers have requested the topic of the grammatical gender of non-living things and I would like to explain the same in this post.
Hindi poses a challenge to the learners when it comes to the grammatical gender of non-living things as unlike English, Hindi has grammatical gender for them as well. Moreover, there are no articles before nouns which can provide you a hint unlike in some languages i.e. der, die and das in German language. The identification of grammatical gender of noun for non-living things must be learned by heart as they are needed for the noun declension.
Like I covered in the post on identification of grammatical gender, I would like to revise some of the rules which will help you to identify if the thing has feminine or masculine gender. Those nouns which usually end in ई (i) in Hindi are feminine nouns like कुर्सी (Kursi – Chair), लकड़ी (Lakadi – Wood), रोटी (Roti – Bread), खिड़की (Khidki – Window) etc. Masculine nouns have a similar pattern, for example those end with आ (aa) like बस्ता (Basta – Bag), कपड़ा (Kapada – Cloth), चश्मा (Chashma – Glasses) etc.
Let me show you some of the common nouns with their grammatical gender.
English | Hindi | Rom. Hindi | Gender |
Chair | कुर्सी | Kursi | feminine |
Bed | पलंग/बिस्तर | Plang/Bistar | masculine |
Computer | कंप्यूटर | Computer | masculine |
Pen | पेन/कलम | Pen/Kalam | masculine |
Bag | बस्ता | Bastaa | masculine |
Tea | चाय | Chai | feminine |
Bulb | बल्ब | Balb | masculine |
Cloth | कपड़ा | Kapada | masculine |
Glass | कांच | Kaanch | masculine |
Glasses | चश्मा | Chasma | masculine |
Door | द्वार/दरवाजा | Davaar/Darvaaja | masculine |
Food | भोजन/खाना | Bhojan/Khana | masculine |
Matches | माचिस | Maachis | feminine |
Wood | लकड़ी | Lakadi | feminine |
Wall | दीवार | Divaar | feminine |
Slipper | चप्पल | Chappal | feminine |
Cigarette | सिगरेट | Cigarate | feminine |
Gun | बंदूक | Bandook | feminine |
Bread | रोटी | Roti | feminine |
Electricity | बिजली | Bijli | feminine |
Water | पानी | Paani | masculine |
Air | वायु/हवा | Vaayu/Havaa | feminine |
Work | काम | Kaam | masculine |
Shoe | जूता | Juta | masculine |
Cup | कप | Cup | masculine |
Book | किताब | Kitaab | feminine |
Bottle | बोतल | Bottle | feminine |
Window | खिड़की | Khidaki | feminine |
Wire | तार | Taar | masculine |
Sweets | मिठाई | Mithai | feminine |
Shirt | शर्ट | Shart | feminine |
Trousers | पेंट/पतलून | Pent/Pataloon | feminine |
Tie | टाई | Tai | feminine |
Plate | प्लेट | Plate | feminine |
Spoon | चम्मच | Chammach | feminine |
Bowl | कटोरा | Katora | masculine |
Fridge | फ्रिज | Fridge | masculine |
Television | टेलीविज़न | Television | masculine |
Cd | सीडी | CD | feminine |
Spice | मसाला | Masaala | masculine |
Roof | छत | Chat | feminine |
House | घर | Ghar | masculine |
Car | कार | Gaadi | feminine |
Bus | बस | Bas | feminine |
Train | रेलगाड़ी | Railgadi | feminine |
Street | सड़क | Sadak | feminine |
Country | देश | Desh | masculine |
Guitar | गिटार | Gitar | masculine |
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Comments:
Srikant:
Paani is male and baarish is female
Paani pad raha tha .बारिश गिर रही थी
Nitin Kumar:
@Srikant @Srikant: You are right about the gender of both nouns though examples must be other way round.
Paani gir raha tha. Baarish pad rahi thi.
kumar kishlay:
Nitin jee aap se ek request hi aap mujhe ye batayea ki hindi language me hum kise samjhe ki kis chiz (thing) ko male samjhe or kis ko female iska koi rule hai plz reply
Srikant:
Please advise when to use “मुझे शादी नहीं करनी ” vs “मुझे शादी नहीं करना ”
Thanks
( I think both have some context meaning)
Nitin Kumar:
@Srikant @Srikant: Only “मुझे शादी नहीं करनी” is correct. Because शादी is feminine noun so verb verb declension should be करनी.
Neeta:
Mez ka kya gender hoga nitinji
Akhil:
@Neeta Neeta,
Mez is masculine.
Rohan:
Which one is correct, “Mein chayi pee raha hu” or “mein chayi pee rahi hu”
Is it dependent on the gender of the speaker?
Nitin Kumar:
@Rohan Of course, it is dependent on the gender of speaker.
Ashwani:
Sir,
Maugal ka feminine kya hga..??
And mausam kya hai feminine or masculine??
Ashwani:
@Ashwani Mugal*
Nitin Kumar:
@Ashwani Mausam is masculine noun. Not sure what you mean by maugal.
Akhil:
Hello Nitin,
Which one is correct?
Is baat ka sense banta hai. इस बात का सेंस बनता है।
Or
Is baat ki sense banti hai. इस बात की सेंस बनती है।
Is sense masculine or feminine?
Nitin Kumar:
@Akhil sense is considered feminine noun by some people and masculine noun by others in Hinglish.
So both may be correct, depending on who do you ask.
Brijesh kumar:
Nitin ji plz muje batao.., scooter,aato and tampo ki gender kya hoga.
Nitin Kumar:
@Brijesh kumar sabhi ka gender pulling hain.
avinash:
Rolling pin and rolling board genders are?
Nitin Kumar:
@avinash rolling pin = feminine and rolling board = masculine.
Nishita:
What is the gender of the word, “oon” (for wool)?
Nitin Kumar:
@Nishita feminine
Anita:
English months like January, February are pulling or striling ??
Nitin Kumar:
@Anita they are gender neutral
Jpriya:
“Usne mujhe gaane ki link bheji hai”.here usne is masculine and its the subject too so bheja has to be correct isn’t it?
Nitin Kumar:
@Jpriya We consider link as feminine noun so bheji hai is correct.
sana:
what is the gender for CD/DVD
Mithlesh:
What is deferent between Curd or curds. Under singular or plural
Nitin Kumar:
@Mithlesh curd is singular and curds is plural.
jithin Bangalore:
there is a song in ashique 2 …..sun raha hai na…..in this song male voice says “sun raha hai na tu” to a female….actualy is it correct not sun rahi hai na ?which is correct
dhairya:
Hey please help me & tell me which gender is word ” ball”
Srikant:
@dhairya ball – neutral
Srikant:
Sangeet – Masculine
Composition – feminine
taaleem / siksha – feminine
Dan Nave:
I take exception to you using a ‘R’ in the romanized Hindi words for the ‘R’ sound. Definitely a bad practice. When you learn Hindi, there are thee ‘D’ sounds and three “R’ sounds. Although one of these looks like the Devanagari D with a dot under it, it is definitely an R sound and an ‘R’ character. (eg: Lakadi)
venki:
God help those trying to learn the Hindi gender. It was a cause of utter frustration in my school days. Generally Indian languages are rule based and systematic but this aspect of Hindi does not have a rule. Very surprising. BTW, how do you decide if a non-living word has a gender or not?
Paniza:
Is india female or male ?
Sabir:
Pani end is इ but this is -femenine
Hawa end is आ but this is -musculin
What is reason between these Srikant ji?
Sabir:
Pani end is इ but this is -musculin
Hawa end is आ but this is -femenine
What is reason between these Srikant ji?