# All Slavic languages: gender of the numeral two



## jazyk

Czech _dvě _and Macedonian две are feminine and neuter, whereas Russian две and Polish dwie are only feminine (neuter and feminine being два and dwa, respectively). What is it like in your language?


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## Maroseika

Ukr. - as far as I know only *два* for all the genders.


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## Duya

It's fairly complex in Serbo-Croatian: there is a "neutral" or "mixed-gender" form _dvoje_, but it can be combined only with an animate noun in plural:

dva muškarca (m.)
dve/dvije žene (f.)

but

*dvoje* dece (neutrum, gen. pl.) = *dva* deteta (neutrum, gen. sg.)
*dvoje* ljudi (=a man and a woman, or of unknown gender)

There are also analog forms *troje, četvoro, petoro...* Actually, I don't think those belong to the "proper" number class -- a more accurate desciption is probably a "numeral noun". They're fairly peculiar.


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## Blacklack

Maroseika said:


> Ukr. - as far as I know only *два* for all the genders.


For masculine and neuter only. For feminine gender it's *дві*.


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## Maroseika

Duya said:


> There are also analog forms *troje, četvoro, petoro...* Actually, I don't think those belong to the "proper" number class -- a more accurate desciption is probably a "numeral noun". They're fairly peculiar.


Maybe - collective, not numeral?
At least in Russian these are collective numerals.


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian:

dve gospe  (feminine) - two women (normally should be: dve gospi, tri gospe)
dva moška (neuter)    - two men


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## papillon

jazyk said:


> Czech _dvě _and Macedonian две are feminine and neuter, whereas Russian две and Polish dwie are only feminine (neuter and feminine masculine being два and dwa, respectively). What is it like in your language?


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## mic234

In Polish:
dwie - two girls
dwoje - boy and girl (or kids)
dwóch - two boys
dwa - two things (not persons - of masculine or neutral genders)
dwie - two things (not persons - of feminine gender)


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## Suane

dva (masculine & neutral)
dve (feminine)

dve ženy (two women) but dvaja muži (two men)


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## winpoj

If you say that "dva" is used for masculine and neuter, why then do you use "dvaja" with "muži"?


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## jazyk

> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *jazyk*
> 
> 
> Czech _dvě _and Macedonian две are feminine and neuter, whereas Russian две and Polish dwie are only feminine (neuter and feminine masculine being два and dwa, respectively). What is it like in your language?


Exactly.  You can clearly see that it was a typo, since I'd already written feminine out of the parentheses. Thanks for pointing it out, though.


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## Irbis

jana.bo99 said:


> Slovenian:
> 
> dve gospe  (feminine) - two women (normally should be: dve gospi, tri gospe)
> dva moška (neuter)    - two men



Actually "moška" is masculin.
And closer translation for "gospa" is "lady". For women you would say "dve ženski". And "gospa" has some forms different from usual template for feminine nouns ending with -a, so it is realy "dve gospe" and not "dve gospi".
Neuter would be "dve sonci" (two suns).


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## Suane

winpoj said:


> If you say that "dva" is used for masculine and neuter, why then do you use "dvaja" with "muži"?


I don't believe there's any rule concerning that. It may have some historical-linguistic reasons, but not a gramatical one.


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## kusurija

Not only in slavic languages gender for 2 differs:
In Lithuanian du is for masculine, dvi is for feminine.
In Latvian may be similar, but this needs native Latvian's comment.


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## jazyk

> Not only in slavic languages gender for 2 differs:
> In Lithuanian du is for masculine, dvi is for feminine.
> In Latvian may be similar, but this needs native Latvian's comment.


Oh, of course not. Lots of non-Slavic languages have two or three words for the number two (Latin, Portuguese, Catalan, Romanian, etc.). I was referring to the fact that in some Slavic languages the masculine and neuter coincide, whereas in others the neuter and the feminine coincide.


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## dudasd

A small appendix to Duya's post about "two" in Serbian:

basic numbers:
*dva* - m. and n. (dva čoveka, dva deteta)
*dve* - f. (dve žene)

colective numbers:
*dvoje* (Duya's explanation is good, it refers to one feminine and one masculine/neutral beings, or two neutral - though sometimes it can be applied to non-living things, usually abstract nouns: "Novac ili slavu - koje od tog *dvoga/dvojega* da izaberem?")
*dvojica* -two persons of masculine gender

Number two with pluralia tantum /or plural:
m: *dvoji - *archaic, like in phrase: "Dvoje je novce zaradio" - Lit. "He has earned double money*s*" (meaning "He has doubled his money"; "dvoje" is here accusative case od "dvoji")
n:* dvoja* - dvoja kola (meaning "two cars" - but car is always in pluralia tantum: *kola* from neutral *kolo - *wheel)
f: *dvoje - *dvoje pantalone ("two pairs of trousers", "pantalone" are pluralia tantum as well, and the supposed singular would be supposed but nonexisting word "pantalona")


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

Irbis said:


> And closer translation for "gospa" is "lady". For women you would say "dve ženski". And "gospa" has some forms different from usual template for feminine nouns ending with -a, so it is realy "dve gospe" and not "dve gospi".


I'd just like to add this: the accent falls on the last syllable in the word "gospá" and stays there also in all numbers and cases.


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## jana.bo99

Hello Irbis,

You are right:

Dva moška (two men) is masculine (I was thinking, there is something wrong).

 About "GOSPA" in English is "MRS" and not a LADY! I don't know, how to translate "LADY" into Slovenian? Was there time here, that in Slovenia was some LADY?


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