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Spanish nouns have two genders: masculine and feminine, represented here by the nouns gato and gata, respectively. Depending on the language and the word, this assignment might bear some relationship with the meaning of the noun (e.g. "woman" is usually feminine), or may be arbitrary.
gato, It. gatto: Late borrowing of obscure origin. ear auris — auricla~oricla: ... Dies 'day' could be either masculine or feminine in Latin. dies dominica: Vgl.
Nouns seem to possess a well defined but covert system of grammatical gender. We may call a noun masculine, feminine or neuter depending on the pronouns which it selects in the singular. Mass or non-count nouns (such as frost, fog, water, love) are called neuter because they select the pronoun it. Count nouns divide into masculine and feminine.
Secondary-declension adjectives that have two endings have one form for the masculine and feminine, and a separate form for the neuter. The ending for the masculine and feminine is -is, and the ending for the neuter is -e. It is not necessary to give the genitive, as it is the same as the nominative masculine singular.
Examples: el gato (gata is uncommon), el puerco (puerca is uncommon), el perro (perra is uncommon) Names of places and things can be either masculine or feminine, but they are considered masculine in the Spanish context because the article 'el' always precedes the noun:
Gato or El Gato is a nickname or given name that may refer to Given name. Gato Dumas (1938–2004), Argentine chef; Gato Eveready (Víctor Manuel Soto Flores, born 1975), Mexican professional wrestler, known as "El Gato" Gato Barbieri (1932-2016), Argentinian jazz tenor saxophonist and composer; Nickname
However the words for inanimate objects are commonly masculine (e.g. der Tisch, the table) or feminine (die Armbanduhr, the watch), and grammatical gender can diverge from biological sex; for instance the feminine noun [die] Person refers to a person of either sex, and the neuter noun [das] Mädchen means "the girl". [87]
The use of the generic he was approved in an Act of Parliament, the Interpretation Act 1850 (the provision continues in the Interpretation Act 1978, although this states equally that the feminine includes the masculine). On the other hand, in 1879 the word "he" in by-laws was used to block admission of women to the Massachusetts Medical Society.