Spanish I: Gender - CliffsNotes

It will not always be possible to predict the gender of a noun by looking at it. When you look up any Spanish noun in the dictionary, the first thing you'll find will be the letter m (for masculine) or f (for feminine). When you learn a new vocabulary word that is a noun, you must memorize the gender of the word as well as the actual spelling of the word. Luckily, the spelling of the word itself may make it possible to ascertain the gender of a word just by looking at it.

Basic rules

The first question you probably have is, “when is it possible to know the gender of a noun by looking at the word?” In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. 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. Check out the following examples:

Masculine		Feminine
el abuelo	the grandfather	la abuela	the grandmother
el hermano	the brother	la hermana	the sister
el museo	the museum	la montaña	the mountain
el pueblo	the town	la playa	the beach
el libro	the book	la escuela	the school

In addition to the general rule that nouns that end in an - a are feminine, another feminine ending is the letter - d. Typically, a word that ends in - dad, -tad, or -tud will be feminine. Notice that most of these words have English equivalents that end in - ty. When you see a Spanish word that ends in - dad, -tad, or - tud, change the ending to - ty to recognize an obvious cognate.

la actitud	the attitude
la ciudad	the city
la dificultad	the difficulty
la facultad	the faculty
la libertad	the liberty (freedom)
la oportunidad	the opportunity
la responsabilidad	the responsibility
la tranquilidad	the tranquility
la velocidad	the velocity

With reasonable confidence you can bet that a word that ends in any of the following combinations will be feminine: - ie, -umbre, -z, -ión.

la actriz	the actress
la costumbre	the custom
la inversión	the inversion
la muchedumbre	the crowd
la serie	the series
la situación	the situation

English words that end in the suffix - tion are equivalent to the Spanish ending - ción. A Spanish word that ends in - ción will always be feminine, will always have an accent on the ó, and will usually have an English cognate that ends in - tion. For example:

la admiración	the admiration
la continuación	the continuation
la inspiración	the inspiration
la liberación	the liberation
la nación	the nation

In addition to nouns that end in - o being masculine, nouns that end in - or, -és, or - n are generally going to be masculine as well. Here are a few examples:

el ordenador	the computer
el inglés	the Englishman
el cinturón	the belt

Article and suffix changes

Occasionally, a noun's spelling will remain the same but the article will change to indicate whether the meaning is masculine or feminine. Also, sometimes a noun can be changed from masculine to feminine simply by changing the ending from an - o to an - a.

When a word that ends in - e is used to refer to a person, the same word is used for both genders. Only the article and adjectives that modify the word will reflect the gender of the person the noun represents.

Masculine		Feminine
el agente	the male agent	la agente	the female agent
el cantante	the male singer	la cantante	the female singer
el comerciante	the business man	la comerciante	the business woman
el estudiante	the male student	la estudiante	the female student
el negociante	the male merchant	la negociante	the female merchant
el participante	the male participant	la participante	the female participant

It is common to add the suffix - ista to a noun to create a new noun that means “a specialist in …” or “a player of ….” For example, el futbolista is a player of fútbol (soccer) and el pianista is a player of the piano or a specialist in the piano. The unusual thing about words that end in - ista is that they will be used for both male and females. The article will indicate the gender of the person the noun represents. Notice that it will seem strange to use a word ending in - a to refer to a male. If you make a note of the irregulars when you learn them, you'll avoid a lot of mistakes later.

Masculine		Feminine
el artista	the male artist	la artista	the female artist
el dentista	the male dentist	la dentista	the female dentist
el futbolista	the male soccer player	la futbolista	the female soccer player
el guitarrista	the male guitar player	la guitarrista	the female guitar player
el novelista	the male novelist	la novelista	the female novelist
el pianista	the male piano player	la pianista	the female piano player

There are a few occasions where the exact same word will have two very distinct meanings, one when the noun is used with a feminine article, and a different meaning when the same noun is used with a masculine article. The spelling of the word does not change, only the gender determines which of the meanings is appropriate.

Masculine		Feminine
el capital	the money	la capital	the city
el cura	the priest	la cura	the cure
el guía	the tour guide	la guía	the guide book
el	orden the order (arrangement)	la orden	the order (command)
el policía	the policeman	la policía	the police force or police woman

When referring to people, you can change a word from masculine to feminine simply by changing a noun that ends in - o to - a.

Masculine		Feminine
el amigo	the male friend	la amiga	the female friend
el alumno	the male student	la alumna	the female student
el chico	the boy	la chica	the girl
el maestro	the male teacher	la maestra	the female teacher
el niño	the boy child	la niña	the girl child
el primo	the male cousin	la prima	the female cousin
el sobrino	the nephew	la sobrina	the niece

Nouns that end in - or, - és, or - n are generally going to be masculine. If you want to use one of these nouns to refer to a female, you can change it to a feminine form by adding an - a to the end of the word.

Masculine		Feminine
el alemán	the German man	la alemana	the German woman
el burlón	the male joker	la burlona	the female joker
el escultor	the male sculptor	la escultora	the female sculptor
el francés	the French man	la francesa	the French woman
el profesor	the male professor	la profesora	the female professor

Remember that you can only create a feminine version of a noun if the word represents a person. You cannot, for example, change el libro (the book) to la libra just because the book belongs to a girl. The word for book, el libro, is always masculine, no matter whose book it is.

Irregularities

The gender rules, of course, have exceptions, but some are predictable exceptions. Even though a word that ends in - a is usually feminine, many words that end in - ma are actually masculine. Notice the irony that - ma words are masculine. It's even funnier to remember this rule since a word that ends in - dad is usually feminine.

Remember: - ma words are masculine and - dad words are feminine.

el clima	the climate
el drama	the drama
el idioma	the language
el poema	the poem
el problema	the problem
el programa	the program
el sistema	the system
el telegrama

Gender

Related Topics:

Gender

Basic rules

Article and suffix changes

Irregularities