To know the gender of Spanish nouns, take a look at the noun ending or the gender of the article before it. It is important to identify the gender of Spanish nouns because the adjectives and other words accompanying them agree accordingly. Take, for example, the feminine noun casa meaning house. If we want to add an adjective to describe it, we need to make it feminine as well, like this: casa bonita meaning beautiful house. This post will review how to recognize the gender of animate and inanimate nouns and review misleading nouns’ gender, nouns that change meaning based on gender, and nouns referring to animals. Keep reading to learn more!
How do you recognize gender in Spanish nouns?
To recognize gender in Spanish nouns, examine the ending of the noun: most nouns ending in -o are masculine (hermano meaning brother; libro meaning book), and those ending in -a are feminine (hermana meaning sister; taza meaning cup). Although this is a good starting point, this is not always the case, you can also memorize the various ending patterns (listed below) for nouns referring to inanimate objects.
Gender of nouns referring to animate objects (physical gender)
To identify the gender of a noun in Spanish, take a look at its ending. The general rule says that nouns ending in -a are feminine and those ending in -o are masculine. Look at the examples below:
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
niño Translation: boy | niña Translation: girl |
Sometimes the masculine noun referring to an animate object ends in a consonant, for example pintor meaning painter. In that case, make the noun feminine simply by adding an -a:
- pintor → pintoraTranslation: painter
- japonés → japonésaTranslation: Japanese
- campeón → campeónaTranslation: champion
Let’s take a look at other cases of the gender of nouns that refer to animate objects.
Nouns that remain the same and only change the article
Some nouns in Spanish are the same regardless of gender and only change the article. This means they have a singular form for both feminine and masculine, while only the article changes. Look at the following examples:
| Masculine | Feminine | Translation |
|---|---|---|
el artista | la artista | the artist |
el piloto | la piloto | the pilot |
el paciente | la paciente | the patient |
el estudiante | la estudiante | the student |
el intérprete | la intérprete | the interpreter |
Nouns ending in '–e'
There are a few nouns that end in -e in their masculine form that refer to animate objects. For these cases, the feminine form is made by dropping the -e and adding an -a:
| Masculine | Feminine | Translation |
|---|---|---|
el jefe | la jefa | the boss |
el sastre | la sastra | the tailor |
Nouns that change slightly for feminine and masculine forms
For some nouns, masculine and feminine forms are somewhat different:
| Masculine | Translation | Feminine | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
el rey | the king | la reina | the queen |
el actor | the actor | la actriz | the actress |
el alcade | the mayor | la alcadesa | the mayor |
Gender of nouns referring to inanimate objects
For the gender of nouns referring to inanimate objects, such as things, places, ideas, etc, the rules are different. Here are some rules and endings that will help you identify their gender with ease.
Masculine nouns
Nouns ending in the consonants -n, -r, -s, -l, -x and -y are usually masculine* (scroll down to see exceptions in the “Misleading nouns” section).
| Noun Ending | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
-n | un / el corazón | a / the heart |
-r | un / el amor | a / the love |
-s | un / el bus | a / the bus |
-l | un / el árbol | a / the tree |
-x | un / el tórax | a / the thorax |
-y | un / el buey | a / the ox |
There are also some categories of nouns that are always masculine. These are: the days of the week, colors, numbers, languages, the names of rivers, oceans, mountains, volcanoes, and compound nouns formed with a verb. You’ll find some examples in the following table:
| Category | Example (Spanish) | Example (translation) |
|---|---|---|
Days of the week | el lunes | Monday |
Colors | el azul | blue |
Numbers | el diez | ten |
Languages | el español | Spanish |
Rivers, oceans, |
|
|
Compound nouns made from verbs | el sacacorchos | the corkscrew |
Finally, there are some other noun endings that are typically an indication of masculine gender. These are: -aje, -ambre, -ate, -ete, -ote, and -miento. Take a look at the following examples:
| Ending | Example (Spanish) | Example (translation) |
|---|---|---|
-aje | el traje | the suit |
-ambre | el hambre | the hunger |
-ate | el escaparate | the wardrobe |
-ete | el clarinete | the clarinet |
-ote | el camarote | the bunk bed |
-miento | el pimiento | the pepper |
Feminine nouns
Nouns ending in -dad, -tad, -tud, -ión, -ez, -eza, -umbre, -is, -ia, -ie, and -ncia are usually feminine (scroll down to see exceptions in the “Misleading nouns” section).
| Ending | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
-dad | la solidaridad | the solidarity |
-tad | la amistad | the friendship |
-tud | la latitud | the latitude |
-ión | la canción | the song |
-ez | la timidez | the shyness |
-eza | la belleza | the beauty |
-umbre | la cumbre | the summit the summit |
-is | la crisis | the crisis |
-ia | la gracia | the grace |
-ie | la superficie | the surface |
-ncia | la emergencia | the emergency |
Nouns ending in ‘-e’
Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine. There is no trick to remembering these, so to know their gender, always take a look at the article before it. In its singular form, a feminine noun will be accompanied by the articles la meaning the or una meaning a, an and the masculine noun will go with the articles el meaning the or un meaning a, an.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
el restaurante Translation: the restaurant | la clase Translation: the class |
el cine Translation: cinema | la noche Translation: the night |
If you want to practice, we have created an exercise for you and a list with the most common Spanish nouns ending in -e.
What are misleading nouns?
Misleading nouns are nouns that refer to inanimate objects that may have the ending of a specific gender but are actually the opposite gender. These nouns are exceptions to the rules above. Look at some examples in the following table:
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
el clima Translation: weather, test | la catedral Translation: cathedral |
el dia Translation: day | la foto Translation: picture, photo |
el idioma Translation: language | la imagen Translation: image |
Do you want to know more? We have created an exercise that you can use to learn more misleading Spanish nouns.
Nouns that change meaning based on their gender
Spanish has some nouns that change their meanings based on their gender (meaning when they are used with feminine or masculine articles).
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
el Papa Translation: the Pope | la papa Translation: the potato |
el capital Translation: the investment | la capital Translation: the capital city |
Check out our list of Spanish nouns that change their meaning based on their gender.
Nouns referring to animals
Nouns referring to animals can be tricky in Spanish. They may only be in the masculine or the feminine gender or may even have different words depending on the gender. Check out this list for a quick reference about the different cases and words for animals based on their gender.
Summary
It’s important to identify the gender of nouns in Spanish so that they can agree with the adjectives and other words used to accompany them. To do so, there are some rules we need to remember. Let’s see what we’ve learned:
Nouns that refer to animate objects will generally have two forms, masculine and feminine, which will be easily identifiable by their endings (-o or -a).
Nouns ending in consonants like -n, -r, -s, -l, -x, or -y are typically masculine.
Nouns ending in -d, -ión, -ez, or -is are typically feminine.
Nouns that end in -e and misleading nouns are hard to tell, so always look at the article in front of the word.
If you want to practice these two last cases, we have created this exercise for you. Finally, if you want an easy way to remember some of these endings, this acronym might be helpful.
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