feminine
part of speech
adjective (feminine, more feminine); noun (the feminine — grammar)
meaning for a pupil
1) Feminine means typical of or thought to be suitable for women or girls. tree →
2) (grammar) In many languages, feminine is a group (gender) of nouns and words, like «la» words in French. tree →
3) In English, some feminine word forms show a female: actress, lioness, waitress. tree →
sense in the lessons
Interpretation: Hebrew nouns are masculine or feminine. Sefer Yetzirah divides the letters by gender, and tradition sees the feminine as part of how God's creation is structured. In the primary lessons: In language lessons pupils learn feminine and masculine nouns in French, Spanish or German, and English pairs like prince/princess. In everyday life «feminine» describes styles and things linked to women; ideas about what is feminine change between places and times. Phrases: feminine form, feminine noun, feminine ending.
examples
- «Lioness» is the feminine form of «lion». tree →
- In French, «table» is a feminine noun. tree →
- She likes a feminine style with flowers and lace. tree →
- «Duchess» is the feminine of «duke». tree →
- The poem has soft, feminine rhymes. tree →
- Boys and girls can like any colour — colours are not really feminine or masculine. tree →
- In Spanish, many feminine nouns end in «-a». tree →
- [239] Kruchina, as an abstract idea, is of the feminine gender. tree →
note
Opposite: masculine. Also «neuter» (neither) in grammar. Noun: femininity. Say: FEM-in-in. Myth: interests and colours are not fixed by being a girl or a boy.
In the corpora
- noir is the masculine and noire the feminine; both sound "NWAR": un chien noir, une souris noire.
- une tortue is a tortoise or turtle and is always feminine, whether the animal is a boy or a girl.
- la bouche ("BOOSH") is the mouth and is feminine: ma bouche, even for a boy.
- des chaussures noires means black shoes: the noun takes s and the colour takes e (feminine) and s (plural).
- Une personne is feminine even for a man, and un bébé is masculine even for a baby girl.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «feminine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.