Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender normally agrees with biological gender for people and animals; thus nouns such as ኣቦ "’abbo" 'father', ወዲ "wäddi" 'son, boy', and ብዕራይ "bǝ‘ǝray" 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as ኣደ "addä" 'mother', ጓል "gʷal" 'daughter, girl', and ላም "lam" or ላሕሚ "lah.mi" 'cow' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender, and the words ተባዕታይ "täba‘tay" 'male' and ኣንስተይቲ "anǝstäyti" must be placed before the nouns if the gender is to be indicated.