In this post, I will show you some easy rules which will help you to detect the masculine and feminine nouns in Hindi.

Masculine nouns are called (पुल्लिंग संज्ञा – Pulling Sangya) whereas, the feminine nouns are called (स्त्रीलिंग संज्ञा – Striling Sangya). As you have already guessed it, noun is called (संज्ञा – Sangya).

Masculine Nouns (पुल्लिंग संज्ञा – Pulling Sangya)

There are certain nouns which are always masculine and can be classified as such,

1. Words which end in sound of “aa” (आ) such as कपडा (Kapada – Cloth), लोहा (Loha – Iron) etc.
2. Name of the countries (देश – Desh) such as भारत (Bharat – India), जर्मनी (Germany), फ्रांस (France) etc.
3. Name of the mountains (पर्वत – Parvat) such as हिमालय (Himalaya), कैलाश (Kailash), आरावली (Aaraavali) etc.
4. Name of the planets (ग्रह – Grah) such as मंगल (Mangal – Mars), शनि (Shani – Saturn), बुध (Budh – Jupitar) etc.
5. Name of the metals (धातु – Dhatu) such as सोना (Sona -Gold), पीतल (Peetal – Brass) etc.
6. Name of the days (दिन – Din) such as सोमवार (Somvaar – Monday), मंगल (Mangalvaar – Tuesday) etc.
7. Name of the seas (सागर – Sagar)  such as हिंद महासागर (Hind Mahasagar – Indian Ocean), अरब सागर (Arab Sagar – Arabic Ocean) etc.
8. Name of the stones (पत्थर – Parvat)  such as हीरा (Hira – Diamond), मोती (Moti – Pearl) etc.

Feminine Noun (स्त्रीलिंग संज्ञा – Striling Sangya)

There are certain noun which are always feminine and can be classified as such,

1. Words which end in sound of “ee” (ई) such as रोटी (Roti – Flat Bread), बेटी (Beti – Daughter) etc.
2. Name of the languages (भाषा – Bhasha) such as हिंदी (Hindi), अंग्रेज़ी (Angrezi – English), चीनी (Chini – Chinese) etc.
3. Name of the rivers (नदी – Nadi)  such as यमुना (Yamuna), गंगा (Ganga), सरस्वती (Saraswati) etc.
4. Words which ends with sound “ta” (ता), “aee” (आई), “aavat” (आवट), “iya” (इया)  such as सुन्दरता (Sundarata – Beauty), बुराई (Buraee – badness), सजावट (Sajaavat – Decoration) etc.
5. Name of the weapons (शास्त्र – Shastra) such as बन्दूक (Banduk – gun), तलवार (Talvaar – Sword), तोप (Toap – Cannon) etc.

Some of the noun are used for both masculine and feminine like कोयल, उल्लू etc. To differentiate between the two, we need to add a prefix “नर”(Nar) for masculine and “मादा” (Maada) for feminine. So, it will be नर कोयल (Nar Koyal) for Mas. Cuckoo and मादा उल्लू (Maada Ullu) for Fem. Owl.

Some nouns are not clear and can only be found from the context1. For example :

1. प्रधानमंत्री कल जा रहे हैं. – Pradhanmantri kal ja rahe hain – Prime Minster is going tomorrow.
Here “रहे हैं” – jaa rahe (is going) indicate the Prime Minister is Masculine with “रहे” (declension from Raha (Mas. Singular) to Rahe (Formal Mas. Singular or Plural) )

2. प्रधानमंत्री दिल्ली जा रही हैं.  – Pradhanmantri dilli ja rahi hain  – Prime Minister is going to Delhi.
Here “रही हैं” – jaa rahe (is going) indicate the Prime Minister is Feminine with “रही” (Rahi)  which is feminine as per our rule no. 1 from above for feminine nouns.