Buenos vs. Buenas

Question

why is that that Buenos Dias uses an 'O' in Buenos and Buenas Noches uses an 'A' in Buenas? REFERENCE: Learning Video 1.1

Welcome to SpanishDict joflobin! - hlsbookworm, Feb 24, 2010

Answer 1

"Días" is a masculine word

"El día", wich makes it Buenos días because Buenos has to be masculine too.

"Noches" is a feminine word

"La noche", which makes it Buenas noches for the same reason as before.

The 2 words have to match in gender.

Answer 2

Beunos and Beunas are both really adjectives (they describe the noun)

the adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun

but, you say, isn't "dias" feminine and "noches" masculine?

truly - I don't know for sure - what I do know is the rules of gender don't always apply

i.e. just because the noun ends in "a" doesn't always mean it's feminine.

but look it up in a spanish dictionary and let me know.

One would hope that you wouldn't ask "isn't 'noches' masculine?" - samdie, Feb 24, 2010

Answer 3

like they said, masculine and feminine. I dont understand though what determines this.

Custom/tradition/history. It is pointless to look for "logic" (especially logic that would appeal to a speaker of a language that does not consider most/all nouns to have gender). - samdie, Feb 24, 2010