How do you know if a Spanish word is feminine or masculine?
Summary about the gender of nouns: Nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine. Most nouns that end in “o”, “e”, “an accented vowel” or “ma”; as well as those that end with consonants except “d”, “z” or “ión” are generally masculine nouns (Remember: “Olé man! HE is NOT a dizzy aficionado”.)
What is the gender rule in Spanish?
All Spanish nouns have lexical gender, either masculine or feminine, and most nouns referring to male humans or animals are grammatically masculine, while most referring to females are feminine. In terms of markedness, the masculine is unmarked and the feminine is marked in Spanish.
What are the exceptions to the masculine and feminine rule in Spanish?
Spanish nouns that end with -o are masculine, and ones that end with -a are feminine, right? Yes, usually. But there are plenty of exceptions to this gender rule, of which the two best known are mano, the word for hand, which is feminine, and día, the word for day, which is masculine.
Why does Spanish use masculine and feminine?
Because it does. Spanish is a gendered language, its ancestors Latin and Proto-Indo-European were also gendered languages, and unlike English, Spanish has kept a gender system (although it lost the neuter gender from Latin).
How do you use EL and LA in Spanish?
The adjective must agree with the noun it refers to.
- Before masculine singular nouns → use el.
- Before feminine singular nouns → use la.
- Before feminine singular nouns starting with stressed a or ha → use el.
- Before masculine plural nouns → use los.
- Before feminine plural nouns → use las.
- a + el → al.
- de + el → del.
What words are feminine in Spanish?
General rules for feminine nouns
- Generally, words ending in -A: la silla, la manzana, la mesa.
- Ending in -CIÓN, -SIÓN, -ZÓN: la canción, la pasión, la razón (exceptions: el corazón, el buzón)
- Words ending in -DAD and -TAD: la felicidad, la amistad, la verdad.
- Ending in -EZ and -TRIZ: la vejez, la actriz.
What is an exception for El and LA?
Definite Articles for Nouns In most cases, el is used for masculine nouns and la is used for feminine nouns. Another rule supersedes this, and that is when the feminine noun is singular and starts with a stressed a- or ha- sound, like the words agua, meaning water, or hambre, meaning hunger.
Why do some Spanish words end in a but are masculine?
Spanish has grammatical gender and many nouns in the language either end in -a (or sometimes other suffixes such as -dad or -ión) to represent grammatical femininity or -o to represent grammatical masculinity.
Why is the Spanish language gendered?
In the Spanish language, all nouns have a gender. Other words used in conjunction with nouns agree in gender as well, so articles and adjectives are also gendered. Typically, masculine nouns end in an O and feminine nouns end in an A. Spanish is not the only language structured like this.
What is masculine plural in Spanish?
el – masculine, singular. los – masculine, plural. la – feminine, singular. las – feminine, plural.
Why is El Agua feminine?
In English when that occurs we break the two vowel sounds with a consonant, ‘an apple’. That’s easier to say! Agua is feminine, however, because of this pronunciation issue with the two vowels side-by-side, it’s actually ‘el agua’.
What are the masculine endings in Spanish?
Nouns with certain other endings are usually masculine. These include -aje (usually the equivalent of “-age”), -ambre, and -or. An exception is la flor (flower). el coraje (courage) el mensaje (message) el espionaje (espionage) el hambre (hunger) el calambre (cramp)
How do you say female in Spanish?
Say “hermosa mujer.” This means “beautiful woman” in Spanish. To say “beautiful girl,” you would say “niña hermosa.”. The phrase is pronounced “ehr-moh-sah moo-hehr.” In Spanish, the “h” is not pronounced like an English hard “h.” The ending “hehr” does not have a hard “r” sound like it would in English.
What is gender in Spanish?
Gender is a grammatical property inherent in nouns. According to their gender, in Spanish, the nouns are masculine or feminine. There are no neutral nouns but careful because there is a neutral article (lo) although it can only be used with adjectives (lo amarillo te sienta muy bien) and adverbs (me impresiona lo lejos que has llegado).
Is clases masculine or feminine?
Normally I can tell when a noun is masculine or feminine, but the word clase for class I cannot figure out. I need to say the sentence “The Algebra class.”, translated as “La/el clase de álgebra.”, but I need to know if clase is masculine or feminine.