Gender of Nouns
What are nouns? Nouns denote a person, place, or thing. In Spanish, nouns have genders!
All nouns in Spanish are either Masculine (el) Feminine (la)
Not literally! While it may be easy to see how certain nouns (that pertain to living things) have a gender because often we assign these things a name. It is the inanimate objects with which you may have the most difficulty. Try this test.
Decide whether the following words are masculine or feminine in gender dresstablebookwindow
Let’s see how you did! dress – el vestido Table – la mesa book – el libro window – la ventana
Maculine nouns These nouns tend to end in: o o
Feminine nouns These nouns tend to end in a ación ación itad itad sión sión dad dad
Take a look at some words you already know chocolate pizza tarea libro
Nouns that don’t follow the rules! Some nouns don’t follow the rule because of pronunciation. El agua – water If we were to say la agua really fast the two words would lose distinction when pronunced.
Another reasons nouns don’t follow the rules! Some nouns of Greek origin remain masculine even though they have a feminine ending. Example: el problema
Ma-Pa-Ta Ma, Pa, Ta Words that end in –ma, -pa, or –ta are masculine words. El clima El mapa El planeta
How do you know which is which? The best thing you can do is practice using the definite article with your new vocabulary. What are the definite articles you ask?
Definite Articles It is how we say “the” in Spanish. The are four ways based upon the gender of the noun and whether or not the noun is singular or plural. Confused?!
Feminine nouns Singular = la Plural = las
Masculine nouns Singular = el Plural = los
Indefinite Articles It is how we say “a” or “an” with something singular and “a few” or “some” with something that is plural. There are four ways based upon the gender of the noun and whether or not the noun is singular or plural. Sound familiar?
Singular nouns feminine = una (a, an) masculine = un (a, an)
Plural nouns Feminine = unas (some/a few) Masculine = unos (some/a few)