There are two grammatical genders in Hindi: masculine and feminine. Every Hindi noun belongs to one of those genders. There are no universal external features to distinguish the gender of a noun, so the gender of many words must be memorized.
Very often, one can determine the gender of a noun from its ending. The most common ending for feminine nouns is ई ii, while the most common ending for masculine nouns is आ aa. (Ex: शादी śaadii 'marriage' and परेशानी pareśaanii 'problem' both are feminine, while तारा taaraa 'star' and सोना sonaa 'gold' both are masculine.) There are, however, some exceptions. (Ex: पानी paanii 'water' is masculine, कविता kavitaa 'poem' is feminine.) There are also a lot of nouns without vowel endings. Some of those words are masculine, while others are feminine. (Ex: काम kaam 'job' and सेब seb 'apple' are masculine, while जीभ jiibh 'tongue' and रात raat 'night' are feminine.)
The gender of a noun denoting an animate being is determined by the biological gender of that being. Many masculine animate nouns have regularly formed feminine counterparts. For example, if a masculine noun ends in आ aa, the corresponding feminine noun always ends in ई ii. (Ex: कुत्ता kuttaa 'a male dog' - कुत्ती kuttii 'a female dog'; घोड़ा ghoRaa 'horse' - घोड़ी ghoRii 'mare'; बकरा bakraa 'a male goat' - बकरी bakrii 'a female goat'.) Other nouns use the suffix नी nii to form a feminine counterpart, as in हाथी haathii 'a male elephant' - हथिनी hathinii 'a female elephant'. Nouns denoting occupations sometimes use the suffix आनी aanii. (Ex: नौकर naukar 'servant' - नौकरानी naukraanii 'maidservant'.)
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