Gender and Number
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All nouns (words describing persons, places or
things) in Spanish are either masculine or
feminine. The gender of a noun affects both
the article (el, la, los, las) as well as any
adjectives used “la tiza blanca” “el cuaderno
negro”
Most nouns that end in “o” are masculine, in
“a” feminine. There are a few big exceptions to
this: (la mano, el día, el mapa)
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Nouns that describe males are masculine,
females are feminine. This includes both
humans and animals (el gato = male cat , la
gata = female cat)
Many masculine nouns which end in o have a
feminine equivalent ending in “a” (el chico/ la
chica, el niño/la niña, el muchacho/la
muchacha)
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Masculine nouns which end in a consonant
such as “or” or “ón” add an a in the female
form burlón/burlona, doctor/doctora
Words that end in -ante , -ente or -ista can be
either masculine or feminine depending on the
gender of the person, however the endings do
not change: el presidente, la presidente, el
feminista, la feminista, el estudiante, la estudiante
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It´s important to learn the gender of words
with unclear consonant endings: El rejoj, La
pared, La luz, el lápiz….
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We make a word plural in Spanish by adding
an -s to a word which ends in a vowel and an es to a word which ends in a consonant:
señora/señoras, reloj/relojes
When a noun ends in “z” change the z to a “c”
when you make it plural. La luz, las luces. El
lápiz, los lapices.
In Spanish the vowel/consonant combination
“ze” or “zi” does not exist.
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When a masculine and feminine noun are
joined together the plural becomes masculine
automatically (like French) “la muchacha y el
muchacho” = “los muchachos”
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Spanish has four ways of saying “the”
depending on the gender and number of the
noun used.
El
Los
La (singular)
Las (plural)
El cuaderno
La silla
Los cuadernos
Las sillas
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The gender and number of the noun tells you
which article to use. It’s good to learn them
both together. Spanish actually considers the
article as part of the word, not as a separate
word.
Book
Female cat
El libro
La gata
Indirect Articles are the equivalent to “a” “an”
“one” and “some” In Spanish they are as
follows
(singular)
(plural)
Un
Unos
Un libro
Una silla
Una
Unas
Unos libros
Unas sillas
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Hay is often used with the indirect article in
Spanish means both “there is” and “there are”.
Hay un libro en tu mochila?
Sí, hay un libro y una pluma.