including those ending in -zion, which are from Latin. man = hand (from Latin "manŭs, -ūs" f) lezion = lesson (from Latin "lectio, -nis" f Note that in some Friulian dialects the -e feminine ending is actually an -a or an -o, which characterize the dialect area of the language and are referred to as a/o-ending dialects (e.g. is spelled as or the latter being the oldest form of the feminine ending). Masculine Most masculine nouns end either in a consonant or in -i. cjan = dog gjat = cat fradi = brother libri = book A few masculine nouns end in -e, including sisteme (system) and probleme (problem). They are usually words coming from Ancient Greek. However, because most masculine nouns end in a consonant, it is common to find the forms sistem and problem instead, more often in print than in speech. There are also a number of masculine nouns borrowed intact from Italian, with a final -o, like treno (train). Many of the words have been fully absorbed into the language and even form their plurals with the regular Friulian -s rather than the Italian desinence changing. Still, there are some purists, including those influential in Friulian publishing, who frown on such words and insist that the "proper" Friulian terms should be without the final -o. Despite the fact that one almost always hears treno, it is almost always written tren. Articles The Friulian definite article (which corresponds to "the" in English) is derived from the Latin ille and takes the following forms: Before a vowel, both il and la can be abbreviated to l' in the standard forms - for example il + arbul (the tree) becomes l'arbul. Yet, as far as the article la is concerned, modern grammar recommends that its non elided form should be preferred over the elided one: la acuile (the eagle) although in speech the two a sounds are pronounced as a single one. In the spoken language, various other articles are used. The indefinite article in Friulian (which corresponds to a and an in English) derives from the Latin unus and varies according to gender: A partitive article also exists: des for feminine and dai for masculine: – some cows and dai libris - some books Adjectives A Friulian adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies. Most adjectives have four forms for singular (masculine and