femininemarked

Femininemarked, or feminine marking, refers to the linguistic feature whereby the feminine category is encoded in the form of words or in agreement with related words. It is a component of grammatical gender systems in which nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, and sometimes verbs reflect femininity through form or concord.

In many languages, feminine marking is primarily morphological: nouns carry feminine endings, and adjectives and determiners agree in gender and number. The specific markers vary by language; some rely on suffixes, others on separate articles or pronouns to signal femininity. The feminine form can be predictable from the noun, but in some languages it requires memorized forms or irregular patterns.

Examples include Spanish, where feminine gender is conveyed with articles like la and with -a endings on many nouns and adjectives (la casa bonita, las casas bonitas). French marks feminine nouns and allows agreement on adjectives (une fille intelligente). Italian uses feminine endings such as -a (la ragazza alta). German marks gender primarily through articles: die signals feminine nouns, and adjective endings reflect feminine agreement, though noun endings themselves do not always reveal gender.

Feminine marking interacts with social and historical factors. In many languages, gendered job titles or forms of address reflect traditional roles, prompting debates about inclusivity and gender neutrality. Some languages have introduced inclusive practices, such as adopting non-gendered forms or using neutral pronouns, while others maintain full feminine concord as an integral feature of the grammar.

Understanding feminine marking is important for language learning, lexicography, and natural language processing, as gender concord affects morphology, syntax, and agreement across sentence elements.