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Adjectives for two nouns of different gender

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 9:59 pm
by Mofmog
According to Wheelock, the latin for "The boy and girl are good" has "good" in the masculine. (Puer et puella sunt boni) But according to Bessimus's answer key, "Filiae et filii virorum et feminarum magnArum..." for "The daughters and sons of great men and women... etc." So is it, use whatever gender for the adjective as long as it's one of the genders of the two nouns it describes or is it like Spanish, where the plural adjective for nouns of mixed genders is masculine?

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:42 pm
by edonnelly
Generally, with mixed genders, attributive adjectives (great men and women) agree with the nearest noun, while predicate adjectives (the men and women are great) will be masculine for living things, neuter for non-living. Which, nicely enough, means that both of your examples are correct.