As a general rule, we recognize the gender of Spanish nouns by looking at the word’s ending. Masculine words usually end in the vowels E or O like PADRE and MAESTRO, whereas feminine words end in the vowel A such as HERMANA and CASA. The picture below introduces some examples of common masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish.
How do you define masculine and feminine in Spanish?
What Do You Need to Know About Masculine and Feminine Spanish?You may already know that every noun in Spanish is either masculine or feminine.This gender is demonstrated by using the Spanish articles el (masculine) or la (feminine). ... Most nouns that end in –o are masculine and most that end in –a are feminine.More items...•
How do you know if something is el or la in Spanish?
In most cases, el is used for masculine nouns and la is used for feminine nouns. Another rule supersedes this, and that is when the feminine noun is singular and starts with a stressed a- or ha- sound, like the words agua, meaning water, or hambre, meaning hunger.
How do you know if a word is feminine or masculine?
How do I know whether a word is masculine or feminine?If a noun refers to a male person it will be masculine, if it refers to a female person it will be feminine.Nouns with these endings will (generally) be masculine: -age. -ment. -il, -ail, -eil, -ueil. ... Nouns with these endings will (generally) be feminine:
What words are feminine in Spanish?
Here are some rules for identifying feminine nouns.Generally, words ending in -A: la silla, la manzana, la mesa.Ending in -CIÓN, -SIÓN, -ZÓN: la canción, la pasión, la razón (exceptions: el corazón, el buzón)Words ending in -DAD and -TAD: la felicidad, la amistad, la verdad.Ending in -EZ and -TRIZ: la vejez, la actriz.More items...•
Is Pizza LA or El?
If you are referring to one pizza the proper terminology is "la pizza" and if you are referring to multiple pies you say "las pizzas." And if you're looking for your closest pizza place, you can ask for the nearest "pizzería."
What is the difference between Le and El in Spanish?
"El" is a form of "el", a definite article which is often translated as "the". "Le" is a pronoun which is often translated as "him".
Is it El red or La Red?
It is used for network and internet a lot. La red, which can only be preceded by "La," not "El" can mean "internet, net," or "network." If you want to be technical, you can say "la internet" or "el internet" for the word "internet." El red means the network.
Is coffee EL or LA?
masculineIn the case of coffee, it is a masculine noun. This means that cafe uses the masculine article “el”. In contrast, leche (milk) is feminine so it uses the feminine article “la”.
What adjectives must match the nouns they describe in both gender and number?
Gender and Adjectives. Spanish adjectives must match the nouns they describe in both gender and number. For example, apples ( manzanas) are feminine in Spanish, so this word must be used with feminine articles like la, las, and una.
Is "ma" masculine or feminine?
Not all words ending in -ma are masculine. Some, like forma ( form ), are feminine.
Do all Spanish nouns have genders?
Quick Answer. All Spanish nouns ( sustantivos ), including people, places, animals, things, ideas, and feelings, have a gender (male or female). The fact that inanimate objects have a gender in Spanish does not mean that things like tables and books are physically feminine or masculine. They have genders in a grammatical sense ...
Is "d" feminine or masculine?
Nouns that end in in d, z, or -ión are also feminine.
Is an apple feminine or masculine in Spanish?
Any adjective used to describe an apple in Spanish must also be feminine (for example roja ). On the other hand, bananas ( plátanos) are masculine, and must be used with masculine articles and adjectives. La manzana es roja. The apple is red.
What are feminine suffixes?
Feminine Suffixes. Nouns ending in certain suffixes are usually feminine. They include -ción (usually the equivalent of "-tion"), -sión, -ía (usually the equivalent of "-y," although not in the diminutive sense), -za, -dad (often used like "-ty"), and -itis ("-itis"). la nación (nation)
Why are rivers masculine?
Names of rivers, lakes and oceans are masculine because el río, el lago and el océano, respectively, are masculine.
What does gender mean in abbreviations?
The gender of abbreviations and acronyms typically matches the gender of the main noun of what the shortened version stands for. Words that are a shorter form of another word or of a phrase retain the gender of the longer word or of the main noun in the phrase. un Toyota (a Toyota.
Is "web" feminine in Spanish?
Thus foreign nouns that end in -a sometimes become feminine, as do some words related in meaning to a Spanish feminine word. el marketing (marketing) la web (the Web or World Wide Web; the feminine is usually used because the Spanish words red and teleraña, words for "web" and "network," respectively, are feminine)
Is a compound noun masculine or feminine?
Compound nouns formed by following a verb with a noun are masculine.
Is "dad" masculine or feminine?
Nouns ending in -a, -ción, -ía, or -dad are usually feminine. Nouns ending in -o, an accented vowel, -or, or -aje are usually masculine. Names of rivers, lakes, and oceans are usually masculine; names of mountains are usually feminine.
Is Google a feminine company?
Names of companies usually are feminine, because la compañía (company) is feminine, as are sociedad anónima (corporation), corporación (corporation), and empresa (business). This rule is not consistently followed, however, and some well-known companies (such as Google) are referred to as either masculine or feminine.
How to tell if a noun is masculine or feminine?
To know if a noun is masculine or feminine, you should look to see what letter (s) the word ends with.
What does gender mean in Spanish?
Gender in Spanish. We know that all people have gender, but in Spanish all nouns have gender. This means that every word for a person, place, thing or idea is either masculine or feminine. This can be confusing, especially when some words, like persona (person), can refer to a person that is man or a woman. Why is it important to know ...
Why is it important to know if a noun is feminine or masculine?
Why is it important to know if a noun is feminine or masculine? Because the gender of the noun changes the article or adjective that you can use with the noun. Masculine nouns are used with articles like el or un and have adjectives that end in -o, while female nouns use the articles la or una and have adjectives that end in -a.
What are some examples of masculine words?
• Most words that end in the letter -o are masculine. Some examples are hijo (son), zapato (shoe) and mono (monkey). • Nouns that end in -ma are masculine, such as the word problema (problem)
Is "la noche" feminine or masculine?
The opposite time of day, la noche (night), is feminine, so you can think of them as a pair. Nouns that end in -a in Spanish are usually feminine, but the word for day is an exception. What if the Noun Doesn't End in -o or -a? Nouns with other endings, such as other consonants, usually need to be memorized.
Is "persona" a feminine word?
We know that a person can be a man or a woman. However, the word persona is always a feminine word. The gender of the word does not change even when the person it refers to is masculine. For example, to say, 'My brother is an interesting person' in Spanish, you would say Mi hermano es una persona interesante.
Is a -ma masculine or feminine?
Although words that end in -a are usually feminine, we already know that the words with -ma at the end of them are masculine. There is one other ending that ends in -a, -ista, that is actually both feminine and masculine. It is usually at the end of words that describe people, like artista (artist) and realista (realist).
How to know if a noun is feminine or masculine?
Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine, that means you have to know when to use ‘El’ or ‘La’ for every single noun. If you have studied Spanish you are painfully aware of this. For English speakers it is hard to determine when a noun is feminine ...
Is it difficult to know the gender of a noun in Spanish?
When you are starting out in Spanish knowing the gender of nouns is very difficult. But it is something that even advanced students mix up once in a while. And to make things more interesting, the fact is that with time, languages evolve and change .
Do endings change according to gender?
The endings are not so obvious. More often than not, the endings change according to the gender of the person or animal:
Is "a" feminine or masculine?
You’ve probably heard this one before: words ending in -a are feminine and words ending in -o are masculine.
Is a noun masculine or feminine?
For English speakers it is hard to determine when a noun is feminine or masculine simply because nouns in English have no gender.
What is the gender of Spanish?
The grammatical gender is an arbitrary classification that divides nouns into two types: masculines or feminines. Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. However, the gender in Spanish language can be really tricky sometimes. The general rule is that words ending with -o are masculine ...
Why is it important to know the grammatical gender of a noun in Spanish?
It’s important to know the grammatical gender of a noun in Spanish because all of the elements referring to them (articles, adjectives, pronouns…) will agree in grammatical gender, too: El libro es fantástico. La película es fantástica.
What is the masculine form?
The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. Generally, if the masculine form ends with an -o, to form the feminine you just need to replace it with an -a: El chico -> La chica. El perro -> La perra. If the masculine form ends witn a consonant, to form the feminine we just add an -a:
Why do they keep the feminine definite article?
Also, in plural they keep the feminine definite article (las), because the S avoids the cacophony: las agua s.
What are the words ending with ISTA?
When they refer to professions, words ending with -ista have the same form for masculine and feminine: el/la dentista, el/la artista, el/la periodista, el/la pianista.
When do we use "el" in singular?
We use the masculine definite article (el) in singular with feminine nouns that start with an A when the stress is put on the first syllable.
Is "un" a masculine word?
With these nouns in singular, the indefinite article (un/una) is masculine, too: un aula, un águila, etc. Although it’s not really incorrect to use the feminine form, it’s less common.
How to tell gender in Spanish?
As a general rule, we recognize the gender of Spanish nouns by looking at the word ending. Masculine words usually end in the vowels E or O like PADRE and MAESTRO, whereas feminine words end with the vowel A such as HERMANA and CASA. The picture below introduces some examples of common masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish.
What are some examples of masculine nouns in Spanish?
Two examples of common masculine nouns are CORAZÓN (heart) and CARRO (heart).
What letters do sustantivos femeninos end in?
Los sustantivos femeninos or feminine nouns usually end in the letters -A, -DAD, -TAD, -ED, -SION, -CIÓN, -DEZ, -TIS, -IZ and some end in -E too. Again, these endings are not absolute so you may find some Spanish masculine nouns ending in those letters as well.
Is "cura" masculine or feminine?
Finally, some nouns could be treated as masculine and feminine nouns. They are usually called SUSTANTIVOS INVARIABLES. The article or pronoun that is placed before them help us determine their gender and meaning. Some of them change their meaning depending on the article they are used with. For example, the noun CURA seems to be a feminine noun, but when add the article EL and say “El cura” then it becomes a priest, but if we add the feminine article LA then it becomes “La cura” (the cure). You can learn more with this video, which explains how a slight change in articles affects the meaning of words.
Feminine Suffixes
Masculine Endings
Masculine Infinitives
- Infinitivesused as nouns are masculine. 1. el fumar(smoking) 2. el cantar(singing) 3. el viajar(traveling)
Months and Days
- Months and days of the weekare masculine. 1. el enero(January) 2. el septiembre(September) 3. el martes(Tuesday) 4. el jueves(Thursday)
Letters and Numbers
- Letters are feminine while numbers are masculine. One way to remember this is that letra is feminine while númerois masculine. 1. la d(d) 2. la o(o) 3. el siete(seven) 4. el ciento(100)
Abbreviations and Shortened Words
- The gender of abbreviations and acronymstypically matches the gender of the main noun of what the shortened version stands for. 1. la ONU (the O stands for Organización, which is feminine) 2. los EE.UU. (United States; estados(states) is masculine) 3. las FF.AA. (armed forces; fuerzasis feminine) 4. la NASA (NASA; the word for agency, agencia, is feminine) 5. el FBI (FBI; buró, the w…
Compound and Two-Word Nouns
- Compound nounsformed by following a verb with a noun are masculine. 1. el rascacielos(skyscraper) 2. el dragaminas(minesweeper) 3. el guardarropa(clothes closet) 4. el tragamondedas(slot or vending machine) Two-word nouns, which are unusual in Spanish, carry the gender of the first noun. 1. el kilowatt hora(kilowatt-hour) 2. el sitio web(website) 3. el año lu…
Chemical Elements
- With the exception of la plata (silver), names of the chemical elementsare masculine. 1. el flúor(fluorine) 2. el cinc(zinc) 3. el hidrógeno(hydrogen)
Geographical Names
- Names of rivers, lakes and oceans are masculine because el río, el lago and el océano, respectively, are masculine. 1. el Danubio(the Danube) 2. el Amazonas(the Amazon) 3. el Titicaca(Titicaca) 4. el Atlántico(the Atlantic) Names of mountains are usually masculine, because el monte (mountain) is masculine. An exception is that the Rockies are usually referred …
Company Names
- Names of companies usually are feminine, because la compañía (company) is feminine, as are sociedad anónima (corporation), corporación (corporation), and empresa(business). This rule is not consistently followed, however, and some well-known companies (such as Google) are referred to as either masculine or feminine. 1. la Microsoft(Microsoft) 2. la ExxonMobil(ExxonM…