Yoruba Feminine
Learning the Yoruba Feminine is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Yoruba language. But first we need to know what the role of Feminine is in the structure of the grammar in Yoruba.
Yoruba feminine refers to female qualities attributed specifically to women and girls or things considered feminine. The complement to feminine is masculine. Here are some examples:
| English Feminine | Yoruba Feminine |
| Feminine | |
| he is happy | Inu re dun |
| she is happy | Inu re dun |
| he is American | Omo ilu America ni |
| she is American | Omo ilu America ni |
| man | Okunrin |
| woman | Obirin |
| father | Baba |
| mother | Mama, iya |
| brother | Omo iya lokunrin |
| sister | Omo iya lobirin |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Feminine in Yoruba has a logical pattern. Locate the Feminine above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Yoruba.
List of Feminine in Yoruba
Below is a list of objects, can you determine whether they're feminine, masculine or plural in Yoruba? Memorizing this table will also help you add very useful and important words to your Yoruba vocabulary.
| English Vocabulary | Yoruba Vocabulary |
| cow | maalu |
| boy | Odomode okunrin |
| girl | Odomode obirin |
| objects | |
| bathroom | Baluwe |
| bed | beedi |
| bedroom | Yara Ibusun |
| ceiling | Orile |
| chair | Aga |
| clothes | Aso |
| coat | Ewu |
| desk | Tabili |
| dress | Aso |
| floor | Ile |
| furniture | Aga ijoko |
| glass | Digi |
| hat | Fila |
| house | Ile |
| ink | Omi ikowe |
| jacket | Aso |
| kitchen | Yara Isenje |
| knife | Obe |
| lamp | Atupa |
| letter | leta |
| newspaper | Iwe Iroyin |
| notebook | Ikowe |
| pants | Sokoto |
| paper | Ikowe |
| pen | gege |
| pencil | penculu |
| picture | Aworan |
| plate | Abo |
| restaurant | Ile ita onje |
| roof | Orile |
| room | Iyara |
| rug | Itele |
| shirt | aso |
| shoes | bata |
| soap | Ose |
| socks | Ibose |
| spoon | Sibi |
| table | Tabili |
| toilet | Ile-Igbe or Ile Iyagbe |
| toothbrush | Igi ifoyin |
| toothpaste | Ose Ifoyin |
| towel | Taweli |
| underwear | Awotele |
| wall | Ogiri |
| wallet | Apo Ifowopamo |
| telephone | Ero Ibanisoro |
Feminine and Masculine have a very important role in Yoruba, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Yoruba Feminine, you might want to check the rest of our Yoruba lessons here: Learn Yoruba. Don't forget to bookmark this page.