Por: Tomás F. Silva, M. Ed.

Students will learn how to determine gender and identify masculine and feminine singular nouns. Objetivos:

Deciding to use which gender is obvious when you are speaking about a man or a woman. But objects are more difficult to identify with their gender. Fortunately, there are clues to help you with these words and others like them.

SingularPlural Nouns are either... Masculine Feminine OR

The definite articles are... el, la, los & las. SINGULAR PLURAL MASCULINE FEMININE EL LA LOS LAS

The indefinite articles are... un, una, unos & unas. SINGULAR PLURAL MASCULINE FEMININE UN UNA UNOS UNAS

It’s easy to identify the gender of some nouns because they obviously refer to masculine or feminine people. el padre la madre el abuelo la abuela the fatherMASCULINE the motherFEMININE the grandfather MASCULINE the grandmotherFEMININE

Another “general rule” is that Spanish nouns ending in -O are MASCULINE and Spanish nouns ending in -A are FEMININE. el amigo la amiga el chico la muchacha el colegio la escuela el libro la calculadora el bolígrafo la bandera MFMFMMFMFM FMFMFFMFMF

Some nouns are both masculine and feminine. Just change the article to refer to either gender. artista dentista estudiante the artist / an artist the dentist / a dentist the student / a student

Some endings help determine the gender of nouns. MASCULINE FEMININE - o - ema - consonants - a -ión -dad -tad -tud

Try and guess the gender of the following nouns… abrigo lección ciudad profesor problema the overcoat the lesson the city the professor the problem masculine feminine masculine

Masculine nouns that ebnd in -és, -r or -n add -a at the end to form the feminine form. francés profesor alemán francesa profesora alemana

All nouns must be identified as singular or plural. To make a noun plural, do the following… If the noun ends in a vowel, add -S If the noun ends in a consonant, add -ES

Change the following nouns to the plural… tienda restaurante flor autor perro joven tiendas restaurantes flores autores perros jovenes

The least you need to know…. Certain endings are always masculine. Certain endings are always feminine. Some nouns can be changed from MASCULINE to FEMININE by adding the appropriate ending. Nouns ending in a vowel can be made plural by adding -S. Nouns ending in a consonant require -ES (-o, -ema, and consonants) (-a, -ión, -dad, and -tad)