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EL NOMBRE THE NOUN |
A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing or idea. In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. This makes perfect sense when we refer to living creatures such as a girl or a man or even a dog because we can assign the tag "male" or "female". However, it becomes more complicated when we are dealing with non-living things such as book, car or table. Spanish places a great emphasis on gender so it’s worth learning how to recognise masculine and feminine nouns.
GENDER OF NOUNS (MASCULINE/FEMININE)
Find below a breakdown of the most common rules applied to gender:
| MASCULINE NOUNS | --> | -O |
It’s the most common ending for masculine nouns. Examples:
| libro | perro | niño.... |
| FEMININE NOUNS | --> | -A |
It’s the most common ending for feminine nouns. Examples:
| cama | mesa | gata.... |
The following are also endings which only apply to feminine nouns:
| -CIÓN | conversación |
| -SIÓN | decisión |
| -DAD | verdad |
| -TUD | virtud |
| -TAD | amistad |
| -UMBRE | muchedumbre |
NOUNS WHICH CAN BE APPLIED TO BOTH GENDERS
There are some nouns which can be masculine or feminine depending on the article that precedes them EL (for masculine) and LA (for feminine).
| -NTE | el/la estudiante |
| -E | el coche la leche |
| -ISTA | el/la artista |
These are the most common rules but, as with everything, there are exceptions:
| 1) Some masculine nouns end in –A: | el problema | el programa |
| 2) Some feminine words end in –O: | la radio | la mano |
Luckily, there are only a few of these.
Other information of interest is that masculine nouns which end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in –A.
| Examples: | el profesor | la profesora |
| el doctor | la doctora | |
| el señor | la señora |
NUMBER OF NOUNS (SINGULAR/PLURAL)
Spanish nouns have singular and plural to denote one or more than one item of such noun. The rule about singular and plural forms is very straightforward:
| SINGULAR | PLURAL |
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| 1) The noun ends in a vowel | --> | Simply add –S |
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| Examples: | botella | botellas | |
| coche | coches | ||
| 2) The noun ends in a consonant | --> | Add –ES | |
| Examples: | flor | flores | |
| canción | canciones | ||
| 3) The noun ends in –Z | --> | Change –Z to –C, add –ES |
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| Examples: | cruz | cruces | |
| feliz | felices | ||
These rules also apply to adjectives.
Examples:
| bonito | bonitos |
| grande | grandes |
| azul | azules |
| marrón | marrones |
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