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Grammatical Gender

Grammatical gender is a feature in some languages where all nouns, regardless of whether they have a natural gender, are assigned a gender for grammatical purposes. This classification affects how words like articles, adjectives, and pronouns interact with nouns.

Grammatical Gender in English​

English does not have grammatical gender, so things are only referred to by their natural gender identities.

  • Male people and animals are referred to with masculine pronouns (e.g., he, him).
  • Female people and animals are referred to with feminine pronouns (e.g., she, her).
  • Everything else—such as inanimate objects (e.g., cups, bowls) and abstract concepts (e.g., happiness)—is referred to with the neutral pronoun (it).

Grammatical Gender in Icelandic​

Icelandic has grammatical gender, meaning that every noun is classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. This classification occurs regardless of the noun’s real-world gender or lack thereof. For example, a noun might refer to something with no inherent gender, like an object or an abstract concept, but it still belongs to one of these three gender categories for grammatical purposes.

For example, in Icelandic, the word froskur (frog) is classified as masculine, even though frogs can be both male or female in reality. Similarly, borg (city) is feminine, despite cities having no living characteristics or natural gender. Likewise, barn (child) is neuter, even though children are people who have their own gender identity.

Common Misconceptions​

It may be tempting to think that there is a reason behind nouns being certain genders, but there is not. It is completely arbitrary. The grammatical gender assigned to a noun is completely separate from the actual thing the noun represents. There is no way to determine if some noun is masculiune, feminine, or neuter based on what it represents; it is simply the way that the noun is characterised.

Another important thing to understand is that the gender is attached to the noun itself, not the thing it represents. Consider the following two words:

  • hestur - (horse)
  • hross - (horse)

Both of these words mean horse, so they represent the exact same thing: a horse. But the nouns are different genders. Hestur is masculine, and hross is neuter. Again: why is this the case? Again, there is no logical reason: it is arbitrary. It is simply the way that Icelandic divides its words.

Note: Grammatical gender is not consistent across languages with grammatical gender. While there may be some overlap in closely related languages (e.g., Swedish and Icelandic), this is not at all reliable for less closely related languages (e.g., Spanish and Icelandic).

Note: The only difference between "Hestur" and "Hross" is that "Hross" is an older word.

Why Is Gender Important​

While the assignment of grammatical gender to nouns is arbitrary, the gender of words have a huge effect on how they are used!

Pronouns​

One of the most improtant reasons is for the use of pronouns. In English, it would be odd to refer to a computer mouse with the pronouns he or she; English uses the neutral pronoun it for non-living things like a computer mouse. In contrast, Icelandic pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun. For example:

  • Barn requires a neuter pronoun: það.
  • Hestur requires a masculine pronoun: hann.
  • Borg requires a feminine pronoun: hún.

This distinction is illustrated in the examples below, where the pronouns change in the second sentence to align with the noun's gender:

Example 1: Þetta er barn. Það er… - (This is a child. It is…)
Example 2: Þetta er hestur. Hann er… - (This is a horse. He is…)
Example 3: Þetta er borg. Hún er… - (This is a city. She is…)

When selecting pronouns in Icelandic, always consider the noun's gender. For instance, when translating it is big into Icelandic, you might assume það fits for it. However, you must choose the pronoun based on the gender of the noun. If the noun that it is refering to is feminine (e.g., borg), you should use hún rather than það.

Tip: Because the gender attaches to the noun, not the thing itself, there are instances where something could be referred to with multiple pronouns. For example, a haddock fish on the table could be referred to as "fiskur" (masculine) or "ýsa" (feminine), and that would determine whether "hann" or "hún" is appropriate. The same applies to a "horse", as discussed earlier. You must choose the pronoun based on which noun you're using, and clarify the noun's gender at the start for context.

Inflection​

Grammatical gender also affects how nouns and adjectives inflects. This will be explored in more detail in the following lesson.