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You are here: Home / Spanish Grammar 102 Gender

Spanish Grammar 102 Gender

All nouns and adjectives have one of two genders:

masculine: chico (boy), profesor (teacher)


feminine: chica (girl), profesora (teacher)

Spanish places a great deal more emphasis on gender than does English. In general, nouns that end in “-o” are masculine:

gato (male cat), cuaderno (notebook), libro (book)

Exceptions include: la mano (hand), la foto (photo), la moto (motocicle), la radio (radio).

Nouns that end in “-a” are feminine. For example: gata (female cat), película (film), ventana (window)

Exceptions include: el problema, el idioma, el tema, el sofá

Watch out! Nouns that end in a consonant or in “-e” can be masculine or feminine. For example:

el lápiz (pencil), la nariz (the nose), el autobús (the bus), la lección (the lesson), pie (foot)

When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la) as it isn’t possible to predict the gender of most nouns.

Sometimes nouns that end in ‘-o’ can become female just by changing the last letter to ‘-a’:

maestro – maestra, abuelo – abuela, amigo – amiga

At other times, when nouns end in a consonant, you need to add ‘-a’:
profesor – profesora, español – española

All nouns can be plural. Nouns that end in a vowel take the suffix ‘-s’:

libro (book) – libros, casa (house) – casas, ojo (eye) – ojos, boca (mouth) – bocas

Nouns which are masculine:

– names of rivers, lakes, seas, oceans
– nouns that end in –aje, -an, -or (exceptions: la flor, la coliflor, la labor, la sor)
– colors

Nouns which are feminine:

– nouns that end in –d, -z, -ción, -zón, for example: la edad, la comunicación, la razón, la nariz
(Exceptions include el juez, el arbabuz, el pez, el corazón)

– nouns that end in –umbre, -eza, -ie, -nza, -cia, -ncia, such as la lumber, la pobreza, la serie, la esperanza, la avaricia, la prudencia

– nouns that end in -á

EXERCISE: 102 Gender | NEXT: 103 Adjectives

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Spanish Beginners’ Course

Grammar
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal Pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser - To Be
110 Possessive Pronouns


Exercises
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal Pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser - To Be
110 Estar - To Be

Vocabulary
101 Family
102 Clothes
103 Travel
104 Personal Information
105 City
106 Body
107 Professions
108 Descriptions
109 Shops
110 Home Contents

Listening practice
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender of nouns
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser
110 Estar
111 Possessive pronouns

Dialogues
101 Un día en la vida
102 En el aula de clase
103 En la escuela de idiomas
104 Al teléfono
105 Una tarde en la cocina
106 En un hotel
107 Conversación entre una pareja
108 Escuchando la radio
109 En la oficina de turismo
110 En la estación de trenes

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