1.2 Nouns: Gender and Number
Nouns: gender (género)
Nouns in Spanish are considered to have “gender” and are classified as being either “masculine” or “feminine”. It’s easy to think of a noun such as “boy” as being masculine and “aunt” as being feminine:
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| el chico | the boy | la chica | the girl |
| el tío | the uncle | la tía | the aunt |
The initial pattern that we can see from the examples above is that nouns referring to people that end in an “o” are masculine and nouns referring to people than end in an “a” are feminine.
Nouns referring to people that don’t end in an “o” or “a” will be masculine if they are males and feminine if they are females:
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| el hombre | the man | la mujer | the woman |
| el padre | the father | la madre | the mother |
However, what might seem strange is to think of nouns such as “book” as being masculine and “window” as being feminine:
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| el libro | the book | la ventana | the window |
| el cuaderno | the notebook | la mensa | the table |
Words such as “gender: masculine / feminine” are simply grammar terms that allow us to talk about how a language works. In fact, there is nothing inherently masculine about a book, nor anything inherently feminine about a table. Yet, nouns such as “libro / cuaderno” do end in an “o” just like “chico / tío”, which are masculine. Likewise, nouns such as “ventana / mesa” end in an “a” just like “chica / tía” which are feminine.
Therefore, the general rule is that most nouns that end in “o” are masculine, and most nouns that end in “a” are feminine—whether they refer to people or things. Words such as “gender: masculine / feminine” are simply grammar terms that allow us to talk about how a language works. In fact, there is nothing inherently masculine about a book, nor anything inherently feminine about a table. Yet, nouns such as “libro / cuaderno” do end in an “o” just like “chico / tío”, which are masculine. Likewise, nouns such as “ventana / mesa” end in an “a” just like “chica / tía” which are feminine.
There are other patterns to noun endings that will tell us if the noun is masculine or feminine:
| Masculine | ||
|---|---|---|
| ends in -o | el libro | the book |
| ends in -or | el doctor | the doctor |
| Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|
| ends in -a | la casa | the house |
| ends in -ora | la doctora | the doctor |
| ends in -cíon, -dad, or -tad | la cancíon, la universidad, la libertad | the song, the university, the freedom |
When talking about grammar, rules help us understand how the language works; but there always seem to be exceptions to the rule:
1. Words ending in “-ista” can be either masculine or feminine:
| -ista | males | -ista | females |
|---|---|---|---|
| el artista | the artist | la artista | the artist |
| el dentista | the dentist | la dentista | the dentist |
| el turista | the tourist | la turista | the tourist |
2. A number of words of Greek origin ending in “-ma” are masculine:
| el clima | the climate, weather |
| el idioma | the language |
| el problema | the problem |
| el programa | the program |
| el sistema | the system |
3. Other words are irregular because they are opposite of the “ends in o/a rule”:
| el día | the day | la mano | the hand |
| el mapa | the map | la radio | the radio |
| el planeta | the planet |
Nouns: number (número)
To make nouns plural, add -s to those ending in a vowel and -es if they end in a consonant. For nouns ending in a -z, change the -z to -c and then add -es.
| Noun | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| ends in vowel | el libro | los libros |
| ends in vowel | el día | los días |
| ends in a consonant | la mujer | las mujeres |
| ends in a -z | la luz | las luces |
When a plural noun refers to both genders then the masculine form is used:
| Noun | Noun |
|---|---|
| el chico | the boy |
| la chica | the girl |
| los chicos | the boys OR the boys and girls |
“Nouns: Gender and Number” in First Year Spanish 1 by Paul Eckhardt is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
