Uncle and aunt, for example, are el to andla ta. The dentists are very young. Te lo has pasado bien en las vacaciones? Tu vecina es muy ruidosa. Nouns that end in -ma are masculine, such as the word problema (problem), Nouns that end in -pa, like the word mapa (map), are also masculine. Im going to list them one by one, and also I will teach you what the exceptions are if there are any. In Spanish, the following nouns are always masculine: (Determiner] +[noun] + [verb conjugated] + [complement]. Forms of feminine and masculine nouns. Because the gender of the noun changes the article or adjective that you can use with the noun. According to the standard rules, you would think the opposite, but as youll see in the exceptions below, youll learn the nuances with the Spanish language. The waitress doesnt work on Thursday. This can be confusing, especially when some words, like persona (person), can refer to a person that is man or a woman. Objectos de clase (masculine - feminine ) Group sort. All of these expressions, as well as a number of others, have one thing in common. man, dog, house). Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning. As you learned before, many Spanish masculine words end with -n. Miami Beach, FL 33139, All Rights Reserved, 2017-2023. El frica El Agua- Las Agua (plural) the waters Luis dog is white. It is usually at the end of words that describe people, like artista (artist) and realista (realist). This means that most Spanish adjectives will change their gender to match the noun. Which is why it uses the article las which correctly matches the nouns gender. Very often our students at Fluenz get genders mixed That being said, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. This means that every word for a person, place, thing or idea is either masculine or feminine. The pink t-shirt is too big. Maybe you could make up your own! While some exceptions (like la mano) are just exceptions, many words that seemingly end in -o are actually shortenings of other words. Its If you look at texts 30 years ago you would never find LA arquitectA, it would have been LA arquitectO. When using demonstrative pronouns (esta, esa, aquella) with these words, they stay feminine. For that reason, in this guide, Ill provide you with all the key information you need to know to determine the gender of nouns in Spanish. His shoes are very expensive. And if theres another word between the definite article (el/la) and the noun, we use the feminine article: La extensa rea / La imponente aula / La hermosa guila. This attribute allows us to classify words as either masculine or feminine. One ending with a final -a, -ista, can be used on words for male or female people, and is both masculine and feminine. In those cases, if we want to specify the sex, we need to add macho (male) or hembra (female): Finally, a word can change its meaning according to its ending. Her bedroom is purple. The adjective ending in Spanish always depends on the noun it modifies. On your particular example of a dropdown menu with the names of languages, you don't have to worry because there is only one name for (the language) Spanish: espaol, masculine. In . Theres a cold front in the city. Adjectives describing, agua are feminine. Example 1: We said all words ending in -a are feminine. Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. Your house is big and pretty. Most nouns that end in "a" are feminine nouns. Spanish Language Dictations Level Beginner #001. 33 chapters | After all, how can you know if problema and mano are feminine or masculine? The same thing in the other direction the rules say it should be el, but the word is actually la. Su habitacin es morada. Qu bonito est tu labial! Some examples include: These rules can help you most of the time to determine if the noun is masculine, but they won't always work. Most words that. However, there are certain words whose endings are unalterable. Tu casa es grande y bonita. La juez es muy puntual. One of the first things that Spanish students learn is that most Spanish nouns that end in -o are masculine and most that end in -a are feminine. Be one of them! These key rules will make it easier for you! But dont worry, were going to give you a framework to work with. "Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions." Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. Time to dive into a topic that combines grammar and etiquette. boeing 767 patriot express. The kids play in the park. Because aguas is plural in the second example, the s on the end of the article las breaks up the stressed a in aguas. But that has changed with time, and thus we end up with rules that are blurry which do not help when those starting to learn Spanish. Because there area lot. One mnemonic device for learning masculine endings is LONERS. Beware of exceptions! Part of Paglia's understanding of men's and women's sexual "personae" is shaped by Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian polarity: The former represents the masculine impulse for stoic order and rationality, while the latter represents the feminine drive toward ecstatic, bodily revelry and the chaotic, unpredictable forces of the natural world. As established before, when it comes to people, you can usually form the Spanish gender by changing the -o for an -a. is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. There are some questions well never really know the answer to. Generally, if the masculine form ends with an -o, to form the feminine you just need to replace it with an -a: If the masculine form ends witn a consonant, to form the feminine we just add an -a: They usually have the same form for masculine and feminine: el/la estudiante, el/la cantante, el/la agente, el/la paciente, etc. And its true that theres no logical way to divide the world into masculine and feminine. In addition to these anomalies, there are other Spanish gender exceptions that you must keep in mind. The judge is always on time. Required fields are marked *. Besides the masculine and feminine genders, some nouns are called: de gnero comn, epiceno, and ambiguo. Sus zapatos son muy caros. Probar is an O to UE stem-changing verb. Create your account. As you might have guessed, all of the tricks were going to cover use word Venir is an irregular verb in Spanish. One of the first things youll find out when learning Spanish is that all nouns have a gender. Ese color es bonito. We can include el/la cineasta within this group. In Italian (including all Italian dialects) and Portuguese, the sea is strictly masculine: il mare (Sicilian: u mari, Venetian: el mar, Neapolitan: 'o mare, Sardinian: su mari, Corsican: u mare) and o mar (the same for Galician); however in French and Romanian it is feminine: la mer and la mare. All rights reserved. It's time to Get to Grips with Spanish. I have two hundred pesos. All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. I feel like its a lifeline. La pared est recin pintada. If the occupation ends in -a it tends not to change. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! hand From Latin manus (" hand " ). In plain English, this book explains the Masculine & Feminine elements of Spanish, plus the rules around Singular & Plural. Colours in Spanish. and an adjective (hungry, thirsty,. When it comes to the world of animals, things can get even more complicated. Plural of Masculine Nouns [edit | edit source]. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. Or el agua in singular, while las aguas in plural. The words doctorA, arquitectA, are relatively new, this is why we cant craft a perfect rule. Because of this, most people assume that vestido is feminine, only to find out that theyre wrong. el day is masculine and is the ONLY exception. The wall is newly painted. Yet it behaves like a feminine noun. Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. This discussion is especially alive with occupations. (f) means that a noun is feminine. You could possibly sayel tortugo to refer to a male turtle, but it might get you a weird look or two. When using adjectives to describe a person, use the gender that the person identifies with. For example: Subscribe for free weekly updates from this Spanish Language site. I hope this helps. When we have 2 or more nouns with different genre (one is masculine and the other one is feminine), and there is 1 adjective used to describe both of them, the genre of this adjective will be masculine. I am going to travel to Mexico during summer vacation. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". vacation translate: vacances [feminine, plural], vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacances, passer des. Nouns ending in -o, an accented vowel, -or, or -aje are usually masculine. Everything weve ever written about Spanish, all in one place. It's important to remember that the gender of a noun refers only to the grammar of the word, not to the person that it refers to. I like the pink dress. Lingua Linkup, May. The general rule states that all Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine. A Spanish noun is a word we use to name people, things, concepts, places, and animals. For 15 years we've taught Spanish to hundreds of thousands of learners. Create an account to start this course today. This is why despite how difficult it is to learn Spanish, we are confident there is a realistic and achievable path to fluency. Here are the exceptions to this rule. The idea here is that words that end in any of the letters L-O-N-E-R-S tend to be masculine. el gato male cat This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. That color is pretty. La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. Yet if you are referring to a person or occupation this is what happens: EL espa = The spy (if the spy is a man) LA espa = The spy (if the spy is a woman. . First of all, what is a noun? For instance, a table (la mesa) is feminine, while a desk (el escritorio) is masculine. Conseiller(re) aux ventes Corbeil lectromnager recherche une personne qui aime offrir aux clients une exprience de magasinage remarquable et qui a un bon sens de l'analyse des besoins. Me gusta el vestido rosa. While most nouns refer to objects and concepts that dont have gender, there are also the nouns that do. This couch is very comfortable. The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. I hope you have enjoyed this article about masculine and feminine in Spanish! In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. The opposite time of day, la noche (night), is feminine, so you can think of them as a pair. las vacaciones de Navidad, las vacaciones de Pascua, las vacaciones de verano. Get a Step-by-Step Map to Learning Spanish. Dont worry! And to make things more interesting, the fact is that with time, languages evolve and change. Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. They have a master's degrees in English from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Missouri Columbia. Exceptions to that rule are la crema and la yema, which come from French and Latin respectively. These noun endings can tip you off that a noun is probably feminine. Copyright 2006 Harrap Publishers Limited. Not bad, huh? Este semestre est bien pesado. My dogs are very quiet. LinguaLinkup.com 2023. The word for 'the' or 'a' changes depending on the gender of the noun and whether it is singular or plural. Got all that? el clima (the weather) As you may already know, most masculine words in Spanish end with -o. (= Is the water cold or lukewarm?). La maestra tiene dos gatitas.The teacher has two kitties. Why? Los nios juegan en el parque. As you can see, below that chart, you'll then see the "el" & "la . Nouns ending with -a are usually feminine: la mesa, la cama, la casa, la palabra, etc. That said, we need to get something out of the way before diving into the rules for gender in Spanish. Below youll find a list of words and be able to find out for yourself if it is masculine (el) or feminine (la). If a color is working as a Spanish adjective, it will need to change its gender to agree with the noun unless such a color ends with a consonant or -e. Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. Comment *document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "afd5b14b53088abe26398d903d076933" );document.getElementById("a465f5e1c1").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Key Takeaways: Spanish Noun Gender Nouns ending in -a, -cin, -a, or -dad are usually feminine. El plato es blanco con rayas azules. Another example of this is la radio, which is a shorter form of the word radiodifusin. 08, 2020, https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/, Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. Have you tried it yet? Colors are always masculine, even if they end with -a: el rojo, el negro, el azul, el naranja, el prpura, etc. What gender is the sea in your mind? This is a feminine word because it is a short form of the longer word, la motocicleta. Sugared water is bad for your health. The endings are not so obvious. -Tud, like in the word actitud (attitude) is also a common ending for feminine nouns. The Masculine and feminine 1 Whack-a-mole. My mom has a cherry tree. And they can be a little confusing because sometimes the noun endings change (the masculineel doctor and the feminine la doctora), but sometimes they dont (the masculineel poeta and the femininela poeta).