Noun gender
Masculine, feminine or neuter?
In short
Every Czech noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and most of the time the last letter gives it away. Ends in a consonant? Probably masculine. Ends in -a? Probably feminine. Ends in -o? Neuter. And a man is always masculine, whatever his word ends in.
- ten hradmasculine: a consonant
- ta ženafeminine: -a
- to městoneuter: -o
- ten tátamasculine, because dad is a man!
Full explanation
Why bother with gender? Because nearly everything else depends on it: adjective endings, the past tense and every single case. So it's worth getting comfortable with it right at the start.
Start with the ending
| Ending | Usually | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | Masculine | hrad, stůl, muž, pokoj |
| -a | Feminine | žena, kniha, škola |
| -o | Neuter | město, auto, okno |
| -í | Neuter | nádraží, náměstí |
| -e / -ě | Feminine or neuter | židle, růže (F) · moře, letiště (N) |
A few that don't play by the rules
- Words for men are masculine, even when they end in -a or -e: táta, kolega, předseda, soudce.
- Some feminine nouns end in a consonant: píseň, kost, tramvaj, postel, kancelář. There's no trick for these, you just get to know them.
- Words borrowed from Latin that end in -um are neuter: muzeum, centrum.
A habit that really pays off: learn every new noun with ten, ta or to in front of it (ten hrad, ta žena, to město). The gender then sticks without you even trying.