Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender, known as பா ("pā") in Tamil, encompasses both the concepts of gender and number. Masculine and feminine genders are only applicable to "higher class" nouns. Even though the genders of animals are marked in a sentence (eg: பெண் நாய்,), grammatically they are handled as a neuter noun. Thus there are five genders in Tamil, namely, masculine singular (ஆண்பால் "āṇpāl"), feminine singular(பெண்பால் "peṇpāl"), high-class plural (பலர்பால் "palarpāl"), lower-class singular (ஒன்றன்பால் "oṉṟaṉpāl"), lower-class plural (பலவின்பால் "palaviṉpāl"). These are summarized in the table below.