Editing Grammatical gender (section)

==== Gender inflection and number inflection ====
In some languages the gender is distinguished only in singular number but not in plural. In terms of linguistic [[markedness]], these languages neutralize the gender opposition in the plural, itself a marked category. So adjectives and pronouns have three forms in singular ({{abbr|e.g.|for example}} [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] {{wikt-lang|bg|червен}}, {{lang|bg|червена}}, {{lang|de|червено}} or German {{wikt-lang|de|roter}}, {{lang|de|rote}}, {{lang|de|rotes}}) but only one in plural (Bulgarian {{lang|bg|червени}}, German {{lang|de|rote}}) [all examples mean "red"]. As a consequence ''[[pluralia tantum]]'' nouns (lacking a singular form) cannot be assigned a gender. Example with Bulgarian: {{lang|bg|клещи}} ({{transliteration|bg|kleshti}}, "pincers"), {{lang|bg|гащи}} ({{transliteration|bg|gashti}}, "pants"), {{lang|bg|очила}} ({{transliteration|bg|ochila}}, "spectacles"), {{lang|bg|хриле}} ({{transliteration|bg|hrile}}, "gills"). {{NoteTag|The characteristic ending {{lang|bg|-а}} of {{lang|bg|очил'''а'''}} suggests a neuter noun, but there is no way to cross-check it and there are indeed a few masculine nouns using the same ending in their plural ({{lang|bg|крак'''а'''}} and {{lang|bg|рог'''а'''}} are plurals of masculine {{lang|bg|крак}} "leg" and {{lang|bg|рог}} "horn"). However, the endings {{lang|bg|-и}} and {{lang|bg|-е}} do not make any such indications because they are ambiguous themselves: although {{lang|bg|-и}} is the regular ending for masculine and feminine nouns, both are in fact used to form plurals of nouns of all three genders ({{abbr|e.g.|for example}} {{lang|bg|завод'''и'''}}, {{lang|bg|жен'''и'''}}, {{lang|bg|насеком'''и'''}} from masculine {{lang|bg|завод}} "factory", feminine {{lang|bg|жена}} "woman" and neuter {{lang|bg|насекомо}} "insect" or {{lang|bg|крал'''е'''}}, {{lang|bg|ръц'''е'''}}, {{lang|bg|колен'''е'''}} from masculine {{lang|bg|крал}} "king", feminine {{lang|bg|ръка}} "hand" and neuter {{lang|bg|коляно}} "knee").}}

Other languages, {{abbr|e.g.|for example}} [[Serbo-Croatian]], allow doubly marked forms both for number and gender. In these languages, each noun has a definite gender no matter the number. For example, {{lang|sh|d(j)eca}} "children" is feminine ''[[singularia tantum]]'' and {{lang|sh|vrata}} "door" is neuter ''pluralia tantum''.