In Spanish, all nouns have a gender, either masculine or feminine. Sometimes this makes sense and sometimes it does not. However, there are a few guidelines that will help.
Masculine words usually end in -o or refer to something that is actually male. Feminine words tend to end in –a, –ción, –dad, or something that is female.
Examples of masculine nouns:
el libro the book
el hombre the man
el perro the dog
el chico the boy
Example of feminine nouns:
la chica the girl
la mujer the woman
la casa the house
la ciudad the city
la canción the song
The articles for singular masculine nouns are el (the) and un (a).
| el libro the book | un libro a book |
| el hombre the man | un hombre a man |
| el perro the dog | un perro a dog |
| el chico the boy | un chico a boy |
The articles for plural masculine nouns are los (the) and unos (some).
| los libros the books | unos libros some books |
| los hombres the men | unos hombres some men |
| los perros the dogs | unos perros some dogs |
| los chicos the boys | unos chicos some boys |
The articles for singular feminine nouns are la (the) and una (a).
| la chica the girl la mujer the woman la casa the house la ciudad the city la canción the song |
una chica a girl una mujer a woman una casa a house una ciudad a city una canción a song |
The articles for plural feminine nouns are las (the) and unas (some).
| las chicas the girls las mujeres the women las casas the houses las ciudades the cities las canciones the songs |
unas chicas some girls unas mujeres some women unas casas some houses unas ciudades some cities unas canciones some songs |
Since you often can’t tell if a noun is masculine or feminine just by looking at it, it is a good idea to always learn nouns with their articles. For example, if you want to know how to say “flower”, learn it as “la flor” as opposed to just “flor”. This way, you will automatically use the correct article and adjectives will be much easier.
One common exception to the “nouns that end in –a are feminine” rule are when the word starts with an a and that first syllable is stressed. In those cases you would use el instead of la. Keep in mind that the noun is still feminine.
| el agua (the water) | las aguas |
| el asma (the asthma) | las asmas |
| el arca (the ark) | las arcas |
| el águila | las águilas |
| el ama de casa (the housewife) | las amas de casa |
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