1. Gender of Nouns In Spanish, all nouns have gender; they are either masculine or feminine. Nouns that end in ‘-o’ are generally masculine. el chicothe boy el librothe book

2. Nouns that end in ‘-a’, ‘-ción’, ‘-sión’, ‘-dad’, or ‘-tad’ are usually feminine. la chicathe girl la puertathe door la presentaciónthe presentation la naciónthe nation ** Note that the ending ‘ción’ in Spanish is ‘tion’ in English.

3. la missiónthe mission la televisiónthe television [the media] la posibilidadthe possibility la libertadthe liberty **Note that the endings ‘tad’ & ‘dad’ in Spanish is ‘ty’ in English.

4. Then gender of other types of Spanish nouns must be learned with the nouns themselves, since they may not fall into one of these patterns. El día- the day la tarde – the afternoon la noche – the night Some nouns have only one form, and the gender is determined by the article. el estudiante – the student [masc.] la estudiante – the student [fem.]