Gender Differences
The only difference between the masculine and feminine forms is the length of the “e” in the genitive and dative forms. In masculine nouns, the “e” is long.
Odds and Ends
- Occasionally, fifth declension nouns can take the genitive and dative singular inflection of -ē.
- Most fifth declension nouns are usually abstract or collective in nature, so the plural is rarely used (like in fides (faith) or spes (hope)). Exceptions would be for more concrete words like dies and res.