What is it with Feminine and Masculine?

Question

So, if masculine words that don't end in "o" can also end in consonants or "e". Are feminine words just all the other stuff? I find it very hard to continually try to figure out which words are feminine and which are masculine.

Answer 1

Take a look at this link

Gender of nouns

If that doesn't help here are a few rules that are (with a few exceptions) fairly consistent.

FEMININE ENDINGS

-a

-ión

-dad

-triz

-tud

-umbre

-uza

-cia

-ie

Certain Categories of nouns are ALWAYS FEMININE:

Letters of the alphabet, Islands, roads

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MASCULINE ENDINGS

-o

-aje

-or

stressed vowels

Certain Categories of words are ALWAYS MASCULINE:

Rivers, seas, lakes, mountains, mountain ranges, fruit trees, cars, days of the week, colors, cardinal directions, infinitives when the act as nouns.

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EXCEPTIONS

As I said there are some exceptions (but not that many) and you just have to learn them as you come across them. Here are a few

el día

el mapa

el planeta

la moto

la modelo

la radio

la mano

el planeta

• Very helpful. Thanks - sueyach Oct 9, 2009

Answer 2

Here's an interesting article on words that break the gender rule of "a" for feminine and "o" for masculine. It includes a list of words like "la mano" and "el agua."

Gender of nouns

• Great article. Thanks - sueyach Oct 9, 2009

Answer 3

Here's an interesting article on words that break the gender rule of "a" for feminine and "o" for masculine. It includes a list of words like "la mano" and "el agua."

This is a good point that you bring up. Some words like la mano actually break the rule while others such as el/un agua and el/un hacha are actually feminine nouns but they take the masculine article when the noun is singular to avoid placing to a sounds side by side. In the plural these words would actually take the feminine article because the a-a pronunciation is not present: unas/las aguas; unas/las hachas.

• Thank you...yes, I should have mentioned that "agua" is still feminine! - --Mariana-- Sep 9, 2009

Answer 4

I think the point to be said is that there is no rule for assigning gender. There may be patterns, but they all have exceptions. If you want to know the gender of a word, look it up, don't try to apply a rule (especially since there are words that are invariant (irlandés) and some that can be both genders (artista), or change their meaning with gender (la cometa, el cometa).

That blue is the default color made by an anchor html tag.

If you want color you have to use paragraph html tag.

Green is made by mixing yellow and blue. Blue cannot be made since it is a primary color. The sky is blue because of light relected of the ocean into the atmosphere. Other than that ask...

God

I hear that He's pretty good with colors

• ¿Cómo haces el color azul? - Heidita Sep 10, 2009