Editing Macedonian language (section)

===Nouns===
Macedonian [[noun]]s (''именки'') belong to one of three [[Grammatical gender|genders]] (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and are [[Inflection|inflected]] for [[Grammatical number|number]] (singular and plural), and marginally for [[grammatical case|case]]. The gender opposition is not distinctively marked in the plural.{{sfn|Friedman|2001|p=40}} Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant or a vowel (''-a'', ''-o''  or ''-e'') and neuter nouns end in a vowel (''-o'' or ''-e''). Virtually all feminine nouns end in the same vowel, ''-a''.{{sfn|Bogdanoska|2008}}

The vocative of nouns is the only remaining case in the Macedonian language and is used to address a person directly. The vocative case always ends with a vowel, which can be either an -у (''јунаку'': hero vocative) or an -e (''човече'': man vocative) to the root of masculine nouns. For feminine nouns, the most common final vowel ending in the vocative is -o (''душо'', sweetheart vocative; ''жено'', wife vocative). The final suffix -e can be used in the following cases: three or polysyllabic words with the ending ''-ица'' (''мајчице'', mother vocative), female given names that end with ''-ка'': ''Ратка'' becomes ''Ратке'' and ''-ја'': ''Марија'' becomes ''Марије'' or ''Маријо''. There is no vocative case in neuter nouns. The role of the vocative is only facultative and there is a general tendency of vocative loss in the language since its use is considered impolite and dialectal.{{sfn|Friedman|2001|page=23}} The vocative can also be expressed by changing the tone.{{sfn|Bogdanoska|2008}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Minova Gjurkova|first=Liljana |year=1994|title=Синтакса на македонскиот стандарден јазик|trans-title=Syntax of the standard Macedonian language|language=mk}}</ref>

There are three different types of plural: regular, counted and [[collective noun|collective]]. The first plural type is most common and used to indicate regular plurality of nouns: ''маж - мажи'' (a man - men), ''маса - маси'' (a table - table), ''село - села'' (a village - villages). There are various suffixes that are used and they differ per gender; a linguistic feature not found in other Slavic languages is the use of the suffix ''-иња'' to form plural of neuter nouns ending in ''-е'': ''пиле - пилиња'' (a chick - chicks).{{sfn|Bojkovska|Minova-Gjurkova|Pandev|Cvetanovski|2008|page=43}} Counted plural is used when a number or a [[quantifier (linguistics)|quantifier]] precedes the noun; suffixes to express this type of plurality do not correspond with the regular plurality suffixes: ''два молива'' (two pencils), ''три листа'' (three leaves), ''неколку часа'' (several hours). The collective plural is used for nouns that can be viewed as a single unit: ''лисје'' (a pile of leaves), ''ридје'' (a unit of hills). Irregular plural forms also exist in the language: ''дете - деца'' (child - children).{{sfn|Bogdanoska|2008}}

====Definiteness====
{|class="wikitable floatright"
|-
|+The definite articles
|-
!rowspan="2" |
!colspan="3" | Singular
!colspan="3" | Plural
|-
!Masculine
!Feminine
!Neuter
!Masculine
!Feminine
!Neuter
|-
!Unspecified
| ''маж'''от'''''
| ''жена'''та'''''
| ''дете'''то'''''
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| ''мажи'''те'''''/''жени'''те'''''
| ''деца'''та'''''
|-
!Proximate
| ''маж'''ов'''''
| ''жена'''ва'''''
| ''дете'''вo'''''
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| ''мажи'''ве'''''/''жени'''ве'''''
|  ''деца'''ва'''''
|-
!Distal
| ''маж'''он'''''
| ''жена'''на'''''
| ''дете'''нo'''''
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| ''мажи'''не'''''/''жени'''не'''''
| ''деца'''на'''''
|}

A characteristic feature of the nominal system is the indication of [[definiteness]]. As with other Slavic languages, there is no [[indefinite article]] in Macedonian. The [[definite article]] in Macedonian is postpositive, i.e. it is added as a suffix to nouns. An individual feature of the Macedonian language is the use of three definite articles, inflected for gender and related to the position of the object, which can be unspecified, proximate or distal.
* Definite articles ''-ов, -ва, -во, -ве'' are used for objects located close to the speaker (''човек'''ов''''': - this person here)
* Definite articles ''-он, -на, -но, -не'' are used for objects located further away from the speaker that can still be perceived (''жена'''на''''': - that woman there)
* Definite articles ''-от, -та, -то, -те'' are most commonly used as general indicators of definiteness regardless of the referred object's position (''дете'''то''''': the child). Additionally, these suffixes can be used to indicate objects referred to by the speaker that are in the proximity of the listener, e.g. ''дај ми ја книгата што е до тебе'' - give me the book next to you.{{sfn|Bojkovska|Minova-Gjurkova|Pandev|Cvetanovski|2008|p={{page needed|date=August 2021}}}}

[[Proper nouns]] are per definition definite and are not usually used together with an article, although exceptions exist in the spoken and literary language such as ''Совче'''то''''', ''Маре'''то''''', ''Наде'''то''''' to demonstrate feelings of [[endearment]] to a person.