Nouns & gender
Georgian has no grammatical gender whatsoever — no masculine, no feminine, not even in pronouns: ის is covers "he", "she" and "it". What Georgian has instead is cases: seven endings that tell you a noun's job in the sentence.
No gender, anywhere
| what other languages fuss over | Georgian |
|---|---|
| der/die/das, le/la, el/la | doesn't exist |
| he vs she | one word: ის is |
| actor/actress-style noun pairs | mostly one word: მასწავლებელი masts'avlebeli — "teacher (m or f)" |
| adjective agrees with gender | no gender to agree with |
Natural sex is expressed with separate words when needed: კაცი k'atsi "man", ქალი kali "woman", ვაჟი vazhi "boy/son", გოგო gogo "girl".
What Georgian has instead: seven cases
A case is an ending glued to the noun that marks its role — like English I / me / my, but for every noun. The citation form ends in -ი -i (the nominative) for consonant-final stems: წიგნ-ი ts'ign-i "book".
| case | ending | job | example (წიგნი "book") |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -ი / — | subject (most tenses) | წიგნი ts'igni |
| Ergative | -მა | subject of past-tense transitive verbs | წიგნმა ts'ignma |
| Dative | -ს | object; "to/for someone" | წიგნს ts'igns |
| Genitive | -ის | possession — "of" | წიგნის ts'ignis |
| Instrumental | -ით | "with, by means of" | წიგნით ts'ignit |
| Adverbial | -ად | "as, into" | წიგნად ts'ignad |
| Vocative | -ო | calling someone | ბატონო! bat'ono! — "sir!" |
Vowel-final nouns (დედა deda "mother") skip the -ი and tweak slightly: დედა, დედამ, დედას, დედის.
The three you need first
- Nominative — the subject: ბავშვი თამაშობს bavshvi tamashobs — "the child plays".
- Dative -ს — the object: წიგნს ვკითხულობ ts'igns vk'itkhulob — "I'm reading the book". Also the person you give something to.
- Genitive -ის — possession: ქალის სახლი kalis sakhli — "the woman's house".
The ergative -მა is the famous one: it appears only on subjects of certain past-tense verbs — მან თქვა man tkva "he/she said (it)". Park it for now; the past-tenses chapter introduces it gently.
Why this is good news
- Every noun declines the same way — no der/die/das lottery, no declension classes worth the name.
- Learn one noun's endings and you have learned them all.
- The endings are doing the work word order does in English, which is why Georgian word order can afford to be relaxed (see word order).
The honest cost: you must notice endings when you listen. The honest payoff: zero gender to memorise, ever.
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