Noun (Substantivo)

Galician nouns have number and gender. The system of gender consists of masculine and feminine genders and the system of number of singular and plural.

All nouns have these two categories:

• o mar the sea (masculine, singular);
• a vida life (feminine, singular);
• os anteollos the spectacles (masculine, plural);
• as gafas the glasses (feminine, plural).

Gender (Xénero)

Some nouns can only have one gender, i.e., they are either masculine (o mar the sea, o sangue the blood) or feminine (a ponte the bridge, a vida life).

Other nouns can be both masculine and feminine (o rei : a raíña the king : the queen; o pozo : a poza the little puddle : the puddle).

Gender, in the latter case, can be marked by means of

• inflectional endings:  o pozo : a poza,
• derivational endings: o galo : a galiña the cock : the hen or
• a different word:       o home : a muller the man : the woman.

• the endings -o and -e are associated with masculine gender: o dote the dowry, o carballo the oak,
• while the ending -a is associated with feminine gender: a cama the bed.

• a ponte the bridge, feminine;
• a moto the motorbike, feminine;
• o día the day, masculine.

• male / female:  boi : vaca ox : cow,
• big / small:  cesto : cesta little basket : big basket,
• individual / collective:  madeiro : madeira log : wood.

Number (Número)

Though most nouns have number distinctions, some lack a singular form (as gafas the glasses, os víveres the provisions).

The information conveyed by the category number refers to the opposition one vs. more than one (o can : os cans the dog : the dogs).

Inflectional plural is normally formed by attaching the morpheme {s}, which has the following allomorphs, depending on the context:

• words ending in vowel + /s/: casa + s > casas houses;
• words ending in -n + /s/: corazón + s > corazóns hearts;
• polisyllabic words with stress on the last syllable ending in -l > Ø + /is/: xornal + is > xornais newspapers;
• other words ending in -l + /es/: túnel + es > túneles tunnels;
• monosyllabic words ending in -l + /es/: sol + es > soles suns;
• words ending in another consonant + /es/: cor + es > cores colours.