"Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions." There are some questions well never really know the answer to. Both are masculine in Spanish, but when translated to French they become feminine even though the words are almost exactly the same: la couleur, la dent. Larry fue a Londres un par de das durante las vacaciones, El ao pasado pasamos unas vacaciones maravillosas en Mallorca. My cousin is also smart. In contrast to English, the Spanish plural of the masculine forms of these words refers to "not-all-feminine" groups, i.e. (general) a. vacation (United States) Me urge una vacacin! The same goes for some words that end in -o that are actually feminine: la mano, la radio, la foto, etc. Just think of the Spanish word for problem: el problema! However, in certain situations, changing the gender of a noun can also change its meaning, as you can see in the graphic and examples below: Mi mam tiene un cerezo. Example 1: We said all words ending in -a are feminine. Hay un frente fro en la ciudad. El mecnico trabaja todos los das. el day is masculine and is the ONLY exception. With these rules below, youll know which to use with every word el or la. All rights reserved. Spanish Language Dictations Level Beginner #001. For any person or animal that is masculine, these are the articles to use: For any person or animal that is feminine, these are the articles to use: For example. Te lo has pasado bien en las vacaciones? La mano (hand) is feminine, but el pie (foot) is masculine. La disco is short for la discoteca, andla foto is short forla fotografa. Retrieved from https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/. It's the person's gender that will determine whether we use el or la. If the occupation ends in -a it tends not to change. Theres a cold front in the city. 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. What Mono means? Estas manzanas estn muy agrias. Even though these endings can generally help you with the gender of a noun, there are some words that do not follow these rules. Gender in Spanish: How to know when a noun is feminine or masculine [2022]. Sometimes you cant tell if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish only by its form. Even though Spanish is a language of exceptions, there are a few guidelines that can help when wanting to determine if a noun is feminine or masculine. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female. Youve probably heard this one before: words ending in -a are feminine and words ending in -o are masculine. This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. The dentists are very young. The two most basic rules about gender are based on the last letter of the noun: A word that ends in -o is masculine, and a word that ends in -a is feminine. Copyright (c) Minerva Webworks LLC All Rights Reserved. Un - unos. If you have the word for friend, it refers to a person correct? If the noun is plural and feminine, then use the plural, feminine ending (usually - las ). frias, sair de frias, frias [feminine, vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacanza, andare in vacanza, (passare le vacanze), Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes, Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. They went to Europe on vacation. The following words are feminine when plural, but when they are singular, these words are masculine: Another exception is that the el or la can change the context of the word: Online Spanish Tutors - Native Speakers. Why? b. holiday (United Kingdom) Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones.You are too stressed out; you should go on holiday. For example, the application developer may write a rule stating that each. Lesson outline 1. thelanguagetutors Follow Advertisement Recommended Spanish Lesson - Lesson 3: Definite and Indefinite articles Swagatam Mitra 3.5k views 9 slides The idea here is that words that end in any of the letters L-O-N-E-R-S tend to be masculine. Colors are always masculine, even if they end with -a: el rojo, el negro, el azul, el naranja, el prpura, etc. Many students assume that confusing the gender of words in Spanish is not a big deal. The word espaol was supposedly imported from Provence by a medieval chronicler (it was originally introduced by pilgrims in Santiago) because there was no existing translation of the earlier Roman word Hispani when writing a chronicle of Spanish history, but this was the word Provenal speakers used to refer to the Christian kingdoms of what The Philippines (/ f l p i n z / (); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. "Uncle" and "aunt," for example, are el to and la ta. There is not a single pattern, as you can see from the following examples. We would say El mdicO, La mdicO. Nouns ending in -cin, -sin, -dad, -tad and -tud are feminine: la cancin, relacin, la televisin, la expresin, la ciudad, la verdad, la libertad, la amistad, la solicitud, la juventud, etc. And because it is an occupation, we said that those that end in -a, tend to stay the same. How do numbers and gender affect adjectives in Spanish? For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . Animals With Irregular Masculine And Feminine Forms. All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. Tom la decisin equivocada. One ending with a final -a, -ista, can be used on words for male or female people, and is both masculine and feminine. Helpful, right? Lucia has very nice qualities. Hubo mil quinientos invitados.There were one thousand five hundred guests. The 27 Letters of the Spanish Alphabet [2022], Learn Basic Spanish: The First 10 Spanish Words You Need To Learn [2022]. Tu casa es grande y bonita. SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. For these nouns, all you have to do is change the definite article to reflect whether the person in question is male or female. endings to determine the gender of a word in Spanish. In Spanish nationalities are expressed through origin adjectives (known as gentilicios in Spanish). 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. Talking about people, especially family members, often includes referring to gender. On the other hand, when working as nouns, Spanish colors are always masculine. All rights reserved. The Masculine and feminine 2 Whack-a-mole. I desperately need a vacation! The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures. Several Spanish nouns have a masculine and a feminine form, for example, hijo - son and hija - daughter.Another example is mdico - male doctor and mdica - female doctor.. Given that this may be a new concept for new learners, many people wonder what grammatical gender in Spanish is. In addition to these anomalies, there are other Spanish gender exceptions that you must keep in mind. Regardless of the rules we stated above, if the word is referring to an animal or a person, then the article must correspond to the gender of the animal or person. #RAEconsultas Although vacaciones is the majority use, the singular vacacin is also correct: la vacacin veraniega (P. Lan Entralgo). However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. Days and months are masculine: el lunes, el mircoles, el sbado, este abril, ese enero, etc. However, with some specific nouns (especially when we talk about professions) we do replace the -e with an -a, and both forms are correct: El presidente -> La presidente / La presidenta. Although its not really incorrect to use the feminine form, its less common. If you were referring to a male friend, which article would you use EL or LA? For these types of cases, there are certain guidelines that can give you a better idea of how Spanish gender is formed. *Note: la moto and la foto are a shortened version of the feminine words motocicleta and fotografa. 0 && stateHdr.searchDesk ? These noun endings can tip you off that a noun is probably feminine. But that is also the beauty of a language, and the fact that it is alive and evolving is one of the elements that I find personally interesting. Here are some key points that you should keep in mind about masculine and feminine words in Spanish: Hola! As you may already know, most masculine words in Spanish end with -o. up when learning new vocab because they had learned this rule of thumb. Claudias make-up is very good. 1000 5th St, suite 200 Venir is an irregular verb in Spanish. [Determiner] + [noun] + [verb conjugated] + [adjective]. Some examples are hijo (son), zapato (shoe) and mono (monkey). The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldnt trust them fully. Lessons for Adults & Kids. Luca tiene cualidades muy buenas. noun uk / veke.n/ us / veke.n/ A1 [ C or U ] US (UK holiday) a time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax vacaciones We're taking a vacation in June. We only do this when those words start with a stressed a sound. This can be very confusing. When it comes to the world of animals, things can get even more complicated. La mano- the hand- feminine. Su habitacin es morada. " El nio es bonito y gordo ". Grammatical gender is a property of Spanish nouns. *People, animals and occupations have their own set of rules. Masculine Nouns Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. The Spanish letters "a" and "o" as the final letter of a word designate a feminine or masculine word; "a" is feminine and "o" is masculine. Su mano es muy pequeo.His hand is very small. If you look at texts 30 years ago you would never find LA arquitectA, it would have been LA arquitectO. Ese color es bonito. Equal Opportunity Employment Program The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre hires on the basis of merit and is strongly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion within its community. Tweet. Feminine nouns have different letters at the end of them than masculine ones. His shoes are very expensive. One other common word that ends in -a but that is masculine is the word el da (day). These nouns keep the same spelling, regardless of gender a fact that cuts down the number of words you have to memorize to speak and write Spanish like a native. 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. The Spanish gender can be distinguished with certain endings or by checking the gender of the adjectives, pronouns and Spanish articles surrounding that word. I hope you find what youre looking for here during your journey into Espaol . Your neighbor is very noisy. So, its important to memorize the feminine words that end with the consonant z. LinguaLinkup.com 2023. Our car is dirty. El telfono is masculine. Fast, easy, reliable language certification, 35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans. The letters of the alphabet are feminine: la a, la be, la ce, la de, etc. The same thing in the other direction the rules say it should be el, but the word is actually la. As youll see in a moment, most words that end in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions. There are some rules to determine if a noun is masculine of feminine. Este semestre est bien pesado. My horse is black and my mare brown. In plain English, this book explains the Masculine & Feminine elements of Spanish, plus the rules around Singular & Plural. I've still got some vacation time left before the end of the year. either to a group of male persons or a . Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. Objectos de clase (masculine - feminine ) Group sort. Learn more in the Cambridge English-French Dictionary. To know if a noun is masculine or feminine, you should look to see what letter(s) the word ends with. Fortunately, even the exceptions have rules. There are some words that end with -o, -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS that are feminine. Spanish nouns have a gender, which is either feminine (like la mujer or la luna) or masculine (like el hombre or el sol). Besides the masculine and feminine genders, some nouns are called: de gnero comn, epiceno, and ambiguo. Although in English there is no need to think about whether a pencil is a masculine or a feminine noun, it is important in Spanish because the adjectives (i. e. pretty, ugly, small, big) and articles (the equivalents of "the" in Spanish, such as: el, la, los and las) of a sentence must match the gender and number of nouns. Animals With A Regular Masculine And Feminine Form. As you can see, most of them are nouns used to describe a persons profession or occupation: And here are some examples of what you can do to mark the gender of these words: [Masculine or feminine determiner] + [noun]+ (adjective). We say EL agua frA (The cold water). 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. . These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Quiero un rojo ms intenso. Maybe you could make up your own! The words doctorA, arquitectA, are relatively new, this is why we cant craft a perfect rule. The gender of the word does not change even when the person it refers to is masculine. This attribute allows us to classify words as either masculine or feminine. Words ending in -o are generally masculine, while ones ending in -a are generally feminine . La torre - the tower. I hope you find what youre looking here during your journey into Espaol Read More About Me, Venir Conjugation 101: Conjugate Venir In Spanish. Check these examples of sentences with colors in Spanish: El rosa es mi color preferido. The grammatical gender is an arbitrary classification that divides nouns into two types: masculines or feminines. The use of the masculine gender includes the feminine and is used only to facilitate the reading. Esta camisa es negra. The Amazon River is the worlds largest river. The general rule is that Spanish nouns that end in -a are feminine. When you first start learning Spanish, grammatical gender can seem arbitrary and confusing. La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. One warning, though: the S in LONERS refers to nouns that are singular, like el mes. Soccer is very boring. (general) a. pasar las vacaciones (United States) 3. Our tutors at Fluenz Spanish Immersion like to explain the noun gender in this way: Think of the article almost as part of the word. Since it can be challenging to conjugate, well Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. Also, notice that there are masculine nouns that end in -l, -z, and -n. I would recommend you learn the following by heart. Follow this link if you want to know WHY nouns have a gender in Spanish. My students are already speaking Spanish and using it in their everyday lives. Como La Flor, by Selena. Her bedroom is purple. The last three of them are actually abbreviations of feminine compound words: la radiofona, la motocicleta, la fotografa. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. Feminine forms. Names of rivers, oceans, and seas are always masculine: el Ro de la Plata, el Amazonas, el Misisipi, el Atlntico, el Pacfico, el Mediterrneo, etc. And of course, they are all derived from the isms of the previous rule. Plural of Masculine Nouns [edit | edit source]. When working as adjectives, numbers have to agree in gender and number with the noun they are modifying. In Spanish, the masculine form of these animals almost always takes precedence. El toro es muy agresivo y la vaca muy tranquila. That means you have to know when to use El or La for every single noun. That being said, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. Some of the exceptions occur because of how the words were treated in other languages, such as Latin and Greek. And to improve your Spanish even further, book a lesson with me! More often than not, the endings change according to the gender of the person or animal: Sometimes only the article changes. Add vacation to one of your lists below, or create a new one. But really, the LONERS rule will work for you almost every time. I have an extra pen. I feel like its a lifeline. Because aguas is plural in the second example, the s on the end of the article las breaks up the stressed a in aguas. vacation Noun 1. 33 chapters | This discussion is especially alive with occupations. When describing a masculine noun like "Amigo", we must use a masculine adjective as well, such as "Honesto". Tu voz es muy chillona. Search millions of Spanish-English example sentences from our dictionary, TV shows, and the internet. 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). 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. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. 2. 501 lessons. And with -(a)tra, especially in the medical field: el/la foniatra, el/la pediatra, el/la obstetra. by Kcastonguay. Your house is big and pretty. In fact, a few masculine words also end with this vowel. Most Spanish masculine nouns end in "o". If you dont have one, sign up its free! Mi gatita est enferma. Tengo una pluma extra. Dont worry! Here, well go through some of the most common giveaways that a word is masculine or feminine, as well as the cases when Spanish grammatical gender can switch for a single word. It's a good place to start for beginners though! This is why despite how difficult it is to learn Spanish, we are confident there is a realistic and achievable path to fluency. As a romance language, Spanish has grammatical gender whose purpose is to express whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Spanish Nouns That Can Be Both Masculine And Feminine While most nouns refer to objects and concepts that don't have gender, there are also the nouns that do.