Nouns
Nouns inflect for number only. Plural nouns take -s after a vowel, -es after a consonant (but final -c changes to -ches to preserve the sound of c).
- catto 'cat' → cattos 'cats'
- can 'dog' → canes 'dogs'
- roc 'rook' → roches 'rooks'
Interlingua has no grammatical gender. Animate nouns are sex-neutral, unless they refer specifically to a male or a female. Thus, jornalista 'journalist' and scientista 'scientist' are sex-neutral, while rege 'king' and regina 'queen' are sex-specific. Explicit feminine forms can be created by substituting final -a for a final -o or -e or by adding the suffix -essa.
- puero 'boy' → puera 'girl'
- tigre 'tiger' → tigressa 'female tiger'
These colour the regular forms as masculine when they appear in the same context.
Read more about this topic: Interlingua Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word nouns:
“All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a double, treble or centuple use and meaning.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Children and savages use only nouns or names of things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to analogous mental acts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)