¡Sí puedo! Can-Do Statement
Identify the gender of nouns.
| ¡Ojo! (Watch out!) El género de los sustantivos es importante! | |
|
el Papa |
la papa |
Género de los sustantivos (Gender of Nouns)
All nouns in Spanish have a gender: masculine or feminine. Except in the case of people or animals, linguistic gender is a convention of language, not a property of the noun. For this reason, you will not always be able to guess the gender of a noun based on the object itself; you need to learn the gender along with the noun. However, here are some rules that can help determine the gender of an unknown word:
1. The gender of nouns:
- The definite article meaning “the” is la for feminine singular nouns.
- Most words ending in –a are feminine
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- All words ending in -sión, -ción, -tad, -dad, –tud, –is and –umbre are feminine
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- Here are some additional examples: la actitud, la multitud, la crisis, la tesis
- The definite article meaning “the” is el for masculine singular nouns. Notice that el without the accent mark is the article… what does él mean? That’s right, it means “he”. Don’t confuse el (the) and él (he)!
- Most words ending in –o are usually masculine
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- Many words ending in –ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine (and originated from the Greek language). Here are some examples using -ma:
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- Additional examples using -pa and -ta are: el mapa, and el planeta.
- Many nouns end in –e. While statistically more are masculine than feminine, there is no firm rule for these and you need to memorize their gender when learning their meaning:
- Many nouns that end in consonants other than -d or -z are masculine, but again this is not a firm rule and you must memorize their gender:
- Some other nouns do not clearly reveal their gender, so it is important to memorize them.
- There are some exceptions that you have to remember:
2. People:
- When referring to people, the biological sex of a person will determine a word’s gender regardless of the rules described above. However, as society has become more sensitive to questions of gender and sexual identity, people have begun experimenting with ways to adjust the traditional binary-gendered structure of the Spanish language. Click the link below to explore some of the experiments in gender-neutral language that Spanish speakers have been developing.
https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender_neutral_language_in_Spanish - Some nouns for people will be identical except for the -o or -a ending:
- However, other nouns are completely different for masculine and feminine forms:
- Some nouns for people are identical, and the gender is shown only in the definite article:
Remember! The gender of nouns that do not refer to people is an inherent characteristic that cannot be changed. If you change the gender ending of an inanimate object, you will change the meaning of the noun to another legitimate word in Spanish:
3. Words ending in -ista
Words ending in -ista do not change for gender (masculine/feminine), only for number (singular/plural). Some examples:
el pianista–> los pianistas, la pianista–> las pianistas
el artista–> los artistas, la artista–> las artistas
el turista–> los turistas, la turista–> las turistas
Note: What do you notice about -ista words? Yes! They are similar to their English equivalent. They are usually cognates, so they are easily understood and will grow your vocabulary quickly. The gender of the noun is known through the article used.
Pregunta (Question): ¿Cómo eres tú? ¿Eres idealista o realista? ¿Optimista o pesimista?
¡Inténtalo! (Try It!)
A. 
Género de sustantivos
Licenses and Attributions
CC licensed content, Shared previously
- El papa Francisco. Authored by: Casa Rosada. Located at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_(papa). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- I love potatoes. Authored by: Joseph Vasquez. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joe3po/4280126262. License: CC BY: Attribution
