As a general rule, most nouns ending in o are masculine and those ending in a are feminine, but there are exceptions. | |||
a. Feminine nouns such as agua, álgebra, and álguila, nouns with a stressed a, are preceded by the masculine el instead of the feminine la in order to avoid the ackward sound of la ... a. | |||
b. Nouns ending in -ie, -ad, and -ud are always feminine. | |||
Ex: la bondad, la libertad, la juventud, la universidad, la serie | |||
c. Nouns ending in -ción , -sion and -umbre are always feminine. | |||
Ex: la acción (action), la revolución (revolution), la cumbre (peak), la misión (mission) | |||
d. Letters of the alphabet, sicknesses, islands and provinces are feminine. | |||
Ex: la fiebre (fever), la Isla de Pinos, (the Isle of Pines (Cuba)), la hache (h) | |||
e. Nouns referring to persons and animals can be masculine or feminine. | |||
Ex: el novio (boyfriend, bridegroom); la novia (girlfriend, bride) | |||
el primo (cousin); la prima (cousin) | |||
el señor (gentleman, Mr.); la señora (lady, Mrs.) | |||
el caballo (horse); la yegua (mare) | |||
f. Nouns referring to a person's profession or social position often end in -ista, -ante, or -ente. These nouns do not change according to gender. The difference in gender is indicated by the masculine or feminine definite article. | |||
Ex: el estudiante, la estudiante (student) | |||
el artista, la artista (artist, performer) | |||
el poéta, la poéta (poet) | |||
el orden, la orden (order) | |||
g. Nouns referring to numbers, days of the week, musical notes, cardinal points, conmpound words, names of trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, straits, and seas are masculine as well as nouns ending in -aje. | |||
Ex: el garaje, el naranjo, el siete, el norte, el do, el lunes, el paraguas, el Canal de Panama, el Caribe | |||
h. Some nouns that end in -ma are masculine. | |||
Ex: el tema (subject), el idioma (language), el problema (problem). | |||
Plural of Nouns |
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The plural of a noun is formed by adding either -s or -es to the noun. The formation of the plural can affect the accenting and spelling of the word. | |||
Add -s to nouns ending in a vowel to form the plural. | |||
Singular | Plural | ||
el gato | los gatos | ||
la silla | las sillas | ||
Add -es to nounes ending in a consonant to form the plural. | |||
el árbol | los árbol es | ||
la verdad | las verdades | ||
el mes | los meses | ||
If a nouns ends in -z, change the -z to -c and add -es to form the plural. | |||
la voz | las voces | ||
la luz | las luces | ||
el lápiz | los lápices | ||
The masculine plural form of Spanish nouns can include the female members of a group as well as the males. | |||
los hijos | sons | son and daughter | sons and daughters |
los señores | gentelmen | Mr. and Mrs. | |
los padres | fathers | father and mother | fathers and mothers |
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