Nouns - Gender

Question

Overview

One of the hardest things for people to get used to when learning Spanish is the idea that nouns (people, places, animals, things, ideas, and feelings) have a gender (male, female). There is always a question of "How can a table be feminine? and "How can a a book be masculine?" This doesn´t mean that the table or the book is physically feminine or masculine, but in a grammatical sense, the ending is. Below you will find a quick rundown of how to deal with all the gender confusion and a few easy ways to remember all the exceptions.

Masculine Nouns

Most masculine nouns end in -o. Ending in an -o can indicate that a person or animal is male, or just an object, idea, etc. that is grammatically masculine.

Masculine Noun that End in -O

-o	el cartero (mailman), el niño (son), el tío (uncle), el teatro (theater), el dormitorio (bedroom)

For All Those Masculine Nouns that Don't End in -O...

If it ends in -e, an accented vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú), a consonant other than -d, -z, or -ma (greek origin) it's also masculine.

Non -O Masculine Nouns

-e	el perfume, el estante, el maquillaje
accented vowel	el colibrí, el ají, el ñandú
consonant (except -d, -z, and -ión)	el arbol, el rumor, el cojín
-ma	el programa, el drama, el idioma

And, the exceptions...These nouns may look like they have a masculine ending, but they are actually feminine. No rules here.

They Look Masculine, But are Feminine!

-o	-e	accented vowel	consonants that aren´t -d nor -z
la foto	la llave	la fe	la miel
la mano	la calle		la sal
la moto	la fiebre		la hiel
	la carne		la piel
	la frase
	la gente
	la nieve
	la noche
	la nube
	la sangre
	la suerte
	la tarde
	la muerte

Feminine Nouns

Most feminine nouns end in -a (except for those masculine -ma nouns). Ending in an -a indicates that a person or animal is feminine or that an object, idea, etc. is grammatically feminine.

Feminine Nouns that End in -A

-a	la enfermera (nurse), la profesora (teacher), la hija (daughter), la rosa (rose), la guitarra (guitar), la piscina (pool)

For All Those Feminine Nouns that Don't End in -A

If it ends in -d, -z, or ión, it's also feminine.

-d	-z	-ión
la felicidad	la nariz	la religión
la virtud	la paz	la canción
la salud	la luz	la irritación

And the exceptions... These nouns look like they have feminine endings, but are grammatically masculine.

-a	-d	-z
el día	el césped	el avestruz
el drama	el huésped	el aprendiz
el enigma	el ataúd	el cáliz
el esquema		el arroz
el estigma		el pez
el estratega		el lápiz
el idioma		el ajedrez
el mapa		el antifaz
el morfema		el maíz
el planeta
el problema
el sistema
el tema

Borrowing From Greek!

A lot of nouns that end in -ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine because they are Greek in origin.

Exercises

1. Categorize each noun as masculine or feminine.

Example: ñandú -> masculine

1. planeta
2. lápiz
3. computadora
4. libro
5. música
6. espacio
7. vacación
8. luz
9. café
10. capacidad

Answers

1. planeta - masculine
2. lápiz - masculine
3. computadora - feminine
4. libro - masculine
5. música - feminine
6. espacio - masculine
7. vacación - feminine
8. luz - feminine
9. café - masculine
10. capacidad - feminine

• What a nice idea to finish off the entry with a few exercises! - Janice 14 de Ago, 2009
• The accented vowel example "fe" has no accent, nor should it. - chull 9 de May, 2010
• "la cárcel" could be another example of fem. noun that looks masc. - chull 9 de May, 2010
• on the Feminine Nouns exceptions..there is also EL AGUA that end in a and it's masculine - lovely_lovel 5 de Jun, 2010
• No, lovely_lovely: 'agua' is feminine. We use the article 'el' to avoid two successive "a" sounds in consecutive accented syllables. Thus, "las aguas" and "agua fria". - jlupine 25 de Jun, 2010
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