Language/Burmese/Grammar/Gender
Hi Burmese learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will learn about the gender rules in Burmese. We will look at how to identify the gender of nouns and how to use them correctly in sentences.
Gender is an important concept in Burmese grammar. It affects the way words are used in a sentence. In Burmese, nouns can be either masculine or feminine. The gender of a noun can be identified by its ending.
Masculine Nouns
Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant. For example:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| မင်း | mɪ́ɴ | man |
| သူ | θu | person |
| စား | sà | food |
Feminine Nouns
Feminine nouns usually end in a vowel. For example:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| မိန်း | míɴ | woman |
| သူ့ | θuʔ | person (feminine) |
| စား့ | sàʔ | food (feminine) |
It is important to note that some nouns can be either masculine or feminine depending on the context. For example, the word for "person" can be either သူ (θu) or သူ့ (θuʔ).
Using Gender in Sentences
Once you have identified the gender of a noun, you must use it correctly in a sentence. In Burmese, the verb must agree with the gender of the noun. For example:
- မင်းသည် စားကြီးနေသည် (mɪ́ɴ θà njí tɪ́ɴ kài nè tɪ́ɴ) - The man is eating.
- မိန်းသည် စားကြီးနေသည် (míɴ θà njí tɪ́ɴ kài nè tɪ́ɴ) - The woman is eating.
As you can see, the verb ကြီးနေသည် (kài nè tɪ́ɴ) changes depending on the gender of the noun.
Quiz
Test your knowledge of Burmese gender rules with the following quiz:
- What is the gender of the word သူ (θu)?
- What is the gender of the word သူ့ (θuʔ)?
- How do you say "The man is eating" in Burmese?
- How do you say "The woman is eating" in Burmese?
Answers:
- Masculine
- Feminine
- မင်းသည် စားကြီးနေသည် (mɪ́ɴ θà njí tɪ́ɴ kài nè tɪ́ɴ)
- မိန်းသည် စားကြီးနေသည် (míɴ θà njí tɪ́ɴ kài nè tɪ́ɴ)
Now that you have learned about gender in Burmese, you can start using it in your own sentences. To improve your Burmese Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!
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