4 Nombres: Género y número

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 mesa	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 –ción, -dad or -tad	la canción, 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