why is the word " meat' feminine if it ends in e.

Question

why is it la carne instead of el carne?

• It just is. - ian-hill Mar 11, 2010
• gee thanks - jso1 Mar 11, 2010

Answer 1

I think with language and a lot of things there are rules that will apply to 2/3 of a situation and then there are the exceptions and irregularities.

The "why" to this is probably buried in time and just memorizing it will be good enough.

Answer 2

Hi jso

Sorry you did not like my It just is. comment.

But you could ask why do nouns have genders at all (English doesn't for example)

Danish has two "neuter" genders (if you can call them genders)

I don't think anyone knows why.

• German has masculine, feminine and neutral - john20 Mar 11, 2010

Answer 3

I agree with Nizhoni

The "why" to this is probably buried in time ...

You just have to accept that there are exceptions to the general rules of masculine and feminine nouns.

Here's a good article on the gender of nouns.

Answer 4

The "why" to this is probably buried in time

English is just as bad regarding non conformity.

Why is the "wh" in why and white pronounced completely differently to the "wh" in whole. As nizohi and others have said, you just have to accept these anomalies.

Answer 5

It's just the any language, sometimes the rules don't apply. The best thing to do is just keep speaking Spanish and you'll get use to it!

Answer 6

The rules are not that all words that end in "a" are feminine, and all words that end in "o"/"e" are masculine but rather that most words ... This is simply one of the cases that justifies the use of "most", rather than "all". In languages, there are very few (if any) absolutes.