GRAMMATICAL GENDERS

There are three grammatical genders, which follow very closely actual gender. The following rules apply:

Foreign and loan words tend to maintain the same gender as in the language of origin. Gods, planets, moons, satellites, constellations, etc… have the same gender as the original Græco-Roman equivalent. Abstract concept (if personified) also have the same gender as the original Græco-Roman equivalent and are feminine when ending in -a/-ion/-ate, masculine when ending in -o/-or.

NOUNS

For purposes of declension, Interlingua nouns, articles, pronouns and adjectives can be divided into three declension, of which the third is mostly used for foreign loan words.

II Declension	Masculin	Feminin	Neutral
	ending = e,c,l,n,r,s,t	ending = e,c,l,n,r,s,t	ending = e,c,l,n,r,s,t
Direct Case Singular	rege - leon	matre - limon	nomine - cannon
Indirect Case Singular	rege - leone	matre - limone	nomine - cannone
Vocative (Honorific) Singular	rege - leone - lectó	matre - limone - lectrí	nomine - cannone - Anglé
Direct Case Plural	leoni - regi	matri - limoni	nomines - cannones
Indirect Case Plural	leones - reges	matres - limones	nomines - cannones
Vocative (Honorific) Plural	regi - leoni - lectori	matres - limones - lecricres	nomines - cannones - Anglé

III Declension	Masculin, Feminin	Neutral	Masculin, Feminin, Neutral
	ending = i, u, any accented vowel	ending = i, u, any accented vowel	ending = loan words
Direct Case Singular	attaché - fiancée	safari - tabu - taxí	album
Indirect Case Singular
Direct Case Plural	attachés - fiancées	safaris - tabus - taxís
Indirect Case Plural

The moderne endings "ki", ke, kes" are preferred over and should replace "chi, che, ches".

The Vocative can be preceeded by the interjections "O" or "OH", and are associated with the "Tu" or with the "Vu":

1. The Honorific/Vocative exists "naturally" only with proper names o generic honorific nouns like "senior", "seniora" and is reserved to persons known to the speaker and for whom the speaker is perfoming a service. It is normally used in combination with the "Vu". Please note that in the second declination only names ending in "-or" e "-trice o patrionimics have a vocative.
2. The generic "doctor" e doctoressa" are forms of respect similar in use to the cockney "guvr-nor", reserved to address a person unknown to the speaker and for whom the speaker is perfoming a service. It is normally used in combination with the "Vu".
3. Adjectives used as pronouns as in Romani, Franceses, etc... are apostrophate at the tonic accent. The final may consequently vary as in "Romá", "Francé", etc... This form is normally reserved to address large groups of people and it is used with "Vui/Vue".
4. Only proper names of the first declination and masculin nouns of the same declination use the accented form as indicated above (from the diminutive -etto/-etta apostrophate al penultime vocal). The second limits it to nouns ending in "or/(or)essa", "tor/trice" e "or/ora", Patronimics and Patrionimics. In all other cases the Vocative is similar to the Nominative, preceeded by the interjections "O" or "OH".
5. The use of the Vocative/Honorific with nouns indicating neutral objetcs is used only in poetry, in which it is used followed by the "Tu/Vos".
6. Prayers normally use the Vocative followed by the "Tu/Voi/Voe". Gods and Godesses are traditionally always addressed by their proper name.

ADJECTIVES

The moderne endings "ki", ke, kes" are preferred over "chi, che, ches".

I Declension	Masculin	Feminin	Neutral
	ending = e,i,c,n,r,s,t + all monosyllables	ending = a,i,c,n,r,s,t + all monosyllables	ending = e,i,c,n,r,s,t + all monosyllables
Direct Case Singular	bon - rustic - horari - parve	bon - rustic - horari - parve	bon - rustic - horari - parve
Indirect Case Singular	bono - rustico - horario - parvo	bona - rustica - horaria - parva	bone - rustiche - horarie - parve
Direct Case Plural	boni - rustichi - horarii - parvi	bone - rustiche - horarie - parve	bones - rustiches - horaries - parves
Indirect Case Plural	bonos - rusticos - horarios - parvos	bonas - rusticas - horarias - parvas	bones - rustiches - horaries - parves

II Declension	Masculin	Feminin	Neutral
	ending =e,l,ce,le,ne,se,te	ending =e,l,ce,ne,le,se,te	ending =e,l,ce,le,ne,se,te
Direct Case Singular	habile - final - feroce - cortese	habile - final - feroce - cortese	habile - final - feroce - cortese
Indirect Case Singular	habile - finale - feroce - cortese	habile - finale - feroce - cortese	habile - finale - feroce - cortese
Direct Case Plural	habili - finali - feroci - cortesi	habili - finali - feroci - cortesi	habiles - finales - feroces - corteses
Indirect Case Plural	habiles - finales - feroces - corteses	habiles - finales - feroces - corteses	habiles - finales - feroces - corteses

III Declension	Masculin, Feminine	Neutral	Masculin, Feminine, Neutral
	ending = i, u, any accented vowel	ending = i, u, any accented vowel	ending = loan words
Direct Case Singular	tabú	tabu	kasher(kaxer)
Indirect Case Singular
Direct Case Plural	tabús	tabús
Indirect Case Plural

Adjectives always use only the Nominative as Vocative/Honorific.

ARTICLES and POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

Definite and indefinite articles and possessive pronouns belong to the first declension.

• The form «L'/l'» can be used in front of words starting with a vowel. Actual usage is a matter of personal preference
• Indefinite pronouns as «alcun», «necun», etc, also follow the same rules as "un".
• There are some prepositions which may contract with the article to form an articulated preposition. These forms are always undeclensable, even in the plural:
  "ab + article" = (A)BEL, "a + article" = AL, "con = article" = COL, "de + article" = DEL, "ex + article" = (E)XEL, "in + article" = (I)NEL, "per + article" = PEL, "pro + article" = PROL, "sur + article" = SUL.

PRONOUNS

Gender	Subject	Genitive	Dative	Accusative - Reflexive	Possessive I Adjectives	Possessive II Adjectives
I Person Singular Masculine / Neutral	io	mi	mei	me	mi	mio - a - e
I Person Singular Feminine	ia	mi	mei	me	mi	mio - a - e
II Person Singular Masculine / Neutral	tu	tu	ti	te	tu	tuo - a - e
II Person Singular Feminine	tua	tu	ti	te	tu	tuo - a - e
II Person Singular Honorific (Masc. & Fem.)	Vu	vu	vui	ve	vu	vuo - a - e
III Person Singular Mascuilne	esso	su	lui	se	su	suo - a - e
III Person Singular Feminine	essa	su	lei	se	su	suo - a - e
III Person Singular Neutral	esse	su	le	se	su	suo - a - e
III Person Indefinite (Person)	on	son	soi	se	son	n/a
III Person Indefinite (Object)	il	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
I Person Plural Masculine / Neutral	noi	nos	ne	nos	nos	nostro - a - e
I Person Plural Feminine	noe	nos	ne	nos	nos	nostro - a - e
II Person Plural Masculine / Neutral	voi	vos	ve	vos	vos	vostro - a - e
II Person Plural Feminine	voe	vos	ve	vos	vos	vostro - a - e
II Person Plural Honorific Masculine	Vui	ves	vue	ves	ves	vestro - a - e
II Person Plural Honorific Feminine	Vue	ves	vue	ves	ves	vestro - a - e
III Person Plural Masculine	essi	lor	los	se	lor	loro - a - e
III Person Plural Feminine	esse	lor	las	se	lor	loro - a - e
III Person Plural Neutral	esses	lor	les	se	lor	loro - a - e

1. Possessive I and II are interchangeable and their use is a matter of personal preference.
2. Possessive I adjectives are undeclensable, preceed the name and refuse any article(e.g. mi matre). Note that they are always identical to the genitive, which they replace.
3. Possessive II adjectives "sua matre" and "suo patre" agree with the name they refer to, as in Italian, rather than with the "owner", as in English.
4. Possessive II adjective follow the first declension and can be used after either a noun or an article (e.g. la mia matre, la matre mia)
5. Only possessive II adjectives can also be used as pronouns (e.g. mi matre e la tua)
6. The III Person Indefinite (Person) has only a possessive of the I form, which remain undeclensable. If it is necessary to use it as a pronoun, it can be preceeded by the declensed article, as in "Si io non ho un bibita e on mei dona el son…"
7. The honorific form normally uses only the conditional/subjunctive and the third person as in "Would your (Lordship/Lordships) want a drink? = Volereat Vu un bibita? / Volerean Vui/Vue un bibita?".
8. The honorific is always written with an upper case initial in the subject case.
9. The honorific normally also prefer the possessive II form.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

	Nominative	Genitive	Dative	Accusative
Masculin & Feminine	qui	cuye	cui	que
Neutral	que	de que	a que	que
Indeterminate	le que	de que	a que	el que
Adjectival	lo, la, le qual li, le quali - les quales	del qual del quales	al qual al quales	el quale los, las, les quales

• The adjectival pronoun "qual" follows the second adjectival declension.

Next Lesson >	< Previous Lesson