# city names in feminine



## cheshire

Athenai, Mycenai, Thebai​Are these cities in Greece all female plurals? Why are they female nouns?


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## minicooper

Athenai, (ÁèÞíá/Athina) = feminine but not plural
Thebai (ÈÞâá/Thiva) = feminine but not plural 
Mycenai (MõêÞíåò/Ìykines) = just plural

Most city names are feminine (Thesaloniki, Patra, Kalamata, Kavala, the islands.....)
Very few are masculine (O Volos)
Very few are nutral (To Mesologi, to Nafplio)


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## parakseno

> Athenai, (Αθήνα/Athina) = feminine but not plural
> Thebai (Θήβα/Thiva) = feminine but not plural
> Mycenai (Mυκήνες/Μykines) = just plural
> 
> Most city names are feminine (Thesaloniki, Patra, Kalamata, Kavala, the islands.....)
> Very few are masculine (O Volos)
> Very few are nutral (To Mesologi, to Nafplio)


Well, minicooper is right of course, just wanted to add something. In Greek the ending of the noun implies the gender. For example a noun ending in -ας or -ης in the Nominative is masculine. Those ending in -ι and -ο are neuter and also those ending in -μα. The rest of the nouns ending in -α (but not in -μα) and those in -η are feminine. (*)
Now, the problem is that there are some genders that have common endings. Let's consider -ος for example. It can be:
-masculine (most of the nouns): ο αδελφος
-feminine: η αμμος
-neuter: το μερος
Despite this the gender is decided more by the ending. For example, "girl" which we would expect to be feminine is actually neuter: το κοριτσ*ι* (it has an iota ending).

(*)Note: These are just the most common endings a noun can have... if you'll feel the need for more just ask


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## modus.irrealis

This is an example of why it's sometimes necessary to specify Ancient or Modern Greek. You got the answer for modern Greek, but I think you intended Ancient Greek here, because those cities did have names that were feminine plurals in ancient times. I couldn't find out if anybody had a good guess why there were feminine plurals, but mine would be that they were originally in apposition to some feminine plural word that was used to refer to the cities, say "houses" or something, but that's purely a guess.


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## cheshire

Thanks for the valuable info, guys!


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