14 Nouns
Gender of Nouns:
- In Spanish, nouns are classified as masculine (used with the articles el and un) or feminine (used with the articles la and una).
el estereotipo la imagen
un rasgo una característica
- Feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound use the articles el/un in the singular, but las/unas in the plural. The only exception is when you talk about the alphabets.
el agua fresca las aguas frescas
un arma automática unas armas automáticas
BUT la “a” la “hache”
- Two primary clues can help you correctly identify the gender of most Spanish nouns.
1. Meaning: biological sex = grammatical gender
When a Spanish noun refers to a male being, it is masculine; when the noun refers to a female being, it is feminine.
el padre la madre el toro la vaca
When a noun refers to a being that can be of either sex, the corresponding article indicates gender. Sometimes the word will have a different form for masculine and feminine.
el artista/la artista
el estudiante/la estudiante
el español/la española
el profesor/la profesora
The following nouns are exceptions: they may refer to either men or women, but their grammatical gender is fixed.
el individuo la persona
el ángel la víctima
2. Word ending: Most nouns that end in –l, -o, -n, -e, -r, or –s are masculine.
el papel el café el libro el amor el examen el lunes
Exceptions: la mano la gente la imagen la parte
- Most nouns that end in –a, -d, -ie, -ión, -is, -umbre, or –z are feminine.
| la comida | la crisis | la actitud | la costumbre |
| la serie | la nariz | la televisión |
Some common exceptions are: el día el sofá el avión el camión
These nouns are feminine, although their popular, shortened forms do not end in –a.
la bici(cleta) la foto(grafía) la moto(cicleta)
Another group of exceptions contains many words ending in –ma, -pa, and –ta.
el atleta el poema el programa el drama el poeta
el sistema el mapa el programa el tema
- Some words have the same form, but can change meaning by changing the article that precedes them. Here are a few common examples.
| el cura (priest) | la cura (cure) |
| el Papa (the Pope) | la papa (potato) |
| el/la guía (guide person) | la guía (guidebook) |
Making nouns plural:
|
Words ending in: |
Plural in: |
Examples |
|
|
a vowel except: -í, |
+ s |
la casa, el comité |
las casas, los comités |
|
a consonant, -í |
+ es |
la pared, el jabalí |
las paredes, los jabalíes |
|
– z |
– ces |
el pez |
los peces |
|
– s (one syllable word or with accent in the last syllable) |
+ es |
el gas, el interés |
los gases, los intereses |
|
– s (in other words) |
unchanged |
la tesis, el paraguas |
las tesis, los paraguas |