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