拉丁语表性别的词尾（对记忆英语单词非常有帮助）

拉丁语是可以根据词尾来决定性别的：

1、阳性词尾大都是us, ir, or, os等；

2、阴性词尾是a,io, tio, sio, go, tas, x, tudo等；

3、中性词尾是um, l, ma, on, le, c, re, ar, ur, en等。

下面的内容请大概地读一读：

All nouns in Latin have gender.

This includes not only things which physically have gender (man, woman, boy, girl, mother, husband, etc.) but also inanimate objects like tables.

not only ... but also conj.不但...而且

Mensa (table), for example, is feminine just like puella (girl).

Sometimes a thing (usually animals or words for people like "student") will have two different nouns, with one masculine and the other feminine.

拉丁语的名词通常会有两种形式——阳性和阴性。现代英语中有大量的源自拉丁语的单词。有资料显示，日常英语文章中60%～80%（在有些专业英语文章中甚至高达90%）的单词源自拉丁语。

所以，了解拉丁语名词的性对我们记忆英语单词有莫大的好处。

Lupus is a male wolf while lupa is a female wolf.

lupus在拉丁语中表“公狼”，由词lup加表“阳性”的后缀-us构成。英语中的Jesus, Zeus, Confucius, Marcus, virus, sensus都是如此。大家应该能够看出来，当您熟悉了拉丁语后缀，大量的英语单词就会变得简单好记。

lupa表“母狼”，由词根lup加表“阴性”的后缀-a构成。

也就是说，如果我们想记忆lupus和lupa这两个单词，实际上只要掌握lup这部分就可以了。而lup在英语中也是一个单词：

lup[lu:p]羽扇

Discipula is a female student while discipulus is a male student.

discipula表“女学生”

discipulus表“男学生”

在英语中，大家经常用到discipline：

discipline[5disiplin]n.纪律, 学科（dis+cip+l(e)+ine）

disciple[di5saipl]n.信徒, 弟子, 门徒(dis+cip+le)

源自古法语 desciple，最终源自拉丁语discipulus [学生]（discere [学习]）

联想记忆：

participle[5pB:tisipl]n.分词（parti+cip+le）

请参考《玩单词、学语法：Participles（分词）》。

What really throws a wrench into this is that Latin does not have two genders. It has three.

throw a wrench into v.阻碍, 破坏

wrench[rentF]n.扳钳, 扳手, 猛扭, 痛苦, 扭伤, 歪曲vt.猛扭, 使扭伤, 曲解, 抢, 折磨

wr-表“扭，拧”，w不发音。请复习write, wrong, wrist（手腕）。

bench[bentF]n.长椅子

In addition to masculine and feminine, Latin also has the neuter gender (interestingly enough, this comes from the Latin neuter which means "neither").

in addition to adv.除...之外

neuter这个单词在拉丁语中的意思是“两者都不”，相当于英语中的neither：

neuter[5nju:tE]adj.中性的, 不及物的, (生物)无性的

ne表“不”，相当于英语中的not。

uter表“也”，相当于英语中的either。

Neither masculine nor feminine in gender.

中性的：既非阳性也非阴性的

neither nor 既不...也不...

请复习neither和either。

Crustulum, a cookie, is a good example of a neuter noun.

One might ask, why is a table feminine while a cookie is neuter?

The simplest answer is: because that's just the way it is.

Sometimes the gender of Latin nouns will make absolutely no sense.

At other times, it will. It is best, however, to memorize the gender of each noun you learn.

大家不用害怕，经常读一读开头介绍的那些拉丁语中表“性”的后缀，您很快就可以轻松记忆大量的英语单词（顺便也能熟悉很多的拉丁语单词），这才是真正的“一举两得”。