Gender of Nouns in Spanish
In Spanish, there are 2 types of nouns:
- Masculine
- Feminine
The grammatical gender of a noun has implications in the other words of the sentence. Adjectives, pronouns and determiners must have the same gender of the noun to which they refer.
Masculine rules
In most cases, we can tell if a noun is feminine or masculine by looking at its ending.
Next, we will look at the most common rules for the masculine gender.
Masculine endings
Often, we can tell whether a noun is masculine if it ends in:
| Masculine Ending | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -o | el perro | the dog |
| -e | el puente | the bridge |
| [consonant]* | el lápiz | the pencil |
NOTE: usually when a word ends in a consonant is masculine but not endings "-ión" and "-d" , which are often feminine.
Groups of masculine words
Some groups of words are always masculine:
- occupations usually belonging to men
el zapatero, el carpintero, el panadero
the shoemaker, the carpenter, the baker - musical notes
el Do, el Re, el Mi, el Fa, el Sol, el La, el Si
C, D, E, F, G, A, B - rivers
El (río) Guadalquivir, el (río) Tajo, el (río) Sena
Guadalquivir river, Tajo river, Sena river - mountains and volcanoes
el Mulhacén, los Pirineos, el Teide
Mulhacen, Pyrenees, Mount Teide - seas and oceans
el (mar) Mediterráneo, el (océano) Atlántico, el (mar) Cantábrico
the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Cantabric Sea - numbers
el uno, el dos, el tres...
one, two, three... - days of the week
el lunes, el martes...
Monday, Tuesday... - colors
el verde, el azul, el naranja
green, blue, orange
Feminine rules
Often, we can tell whether a noun is feminine if it ends in:
| Feminine Ending | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -a | la mesa | the table |
| -d | el puente | the bridge |
| -ión | la dirección | the address |
Unfortunately, there are many exceptions, some of the them:
el idioma
the language
el policía
the policeman
Forming Feminine Nouns
Oft, the construction of the feminine noun is easy if we know the masculine noun. There are a few simple rules:
- If the word ends in a consonant an "-a" is added
El doctor --> La doctora
The doctor --> The doctor (female) - If the word ends in a "-o" or a "-e", the vowel changes to "-a"
El niño --> La niña
The boy --> The girlEl jefe --> La jefa
The boss --> The boss (female)
But sometimes we can not form the feminine that easily. Although the root of the word does not change, the ending is completely different:
El actor --> La actriz
Actor --> Actress
El gallo --> La gallina
Rooster --> Hen
In other cases, the feminine word is completely different:
El hombre --> La mujer
The man --> The woman
El caballo --> La yegua
The horse --> The mare
El toro --> La vaca
The bull --> The cow
Endings for both genders
There are endings that are used for both genders. They are:
- "-ista"
- "-ante"
In these cases, we would determine the gender from its corresponding article.
el estilista --> la estilista
The stylist (male) --> The stylist (female)
Other cases
Animal names are usually only masculine or only femenine and used for both genders. The actual sex is determined by adding "macho" (male) or "hembra" (female) after the noun.
here some Masculine animals:
| Masculine Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|
| el águila | the aegle |
| el cisne | the swan |
| el pájaro | the bird |
And some feminine animals:
| Feminine Animals | Meaning |
|---|---|
| la abeja | the bee |
| la araña | the spider |
| la ballena | the whale |
Masculine examples:
el águila macho - el águila hembra
the male eagle, the female eagle
el gorila macho - el gorila hembra
the male gorilla – the female gorilla
Feminine examples:
la jirafa macho - la jirafa hembra
the male giraffe – the female giraffe
la tortuga macho - la tortuga hembra
the male turtle – the female turtle