Why are some of the spanish words different?

Question

for example, the word mapa, it looks like a feminine, but isn't it masculine?

Answer 1

Spanish/Latin adopted a lot of words from Greek that end in "a", like planeta, programa, problema, sistema, etc. Those are masculine even though they end in "a". I'm not sure if mapa is one of those words, but that's one reason why there are exceptions to the rule. Frankly, I find it amazing that Spanish follows its own rules so closely. Most languages don't even have rules. It's mostly random.

Answer 2

Right, el mapa. You must learn them by heart. There are some with double genre: el sartén / la sartén.

"gender", Morbo, not "genre". - waltico, Jun 9, 2010

Voy a meter la mano para resolver el problema. - waltico, Jun 9, 2010

Answer 3

hmm, let me give you a tip how bout if you compare this words with your native language which is English obviously to see if they are for female or male, but I'm just saying this because it helps me a lot and I'm still learning English. Thanks for reading

I hope this helps with your learning.

Adios Amigo.

In English, most nouns are neutral - neither male nor female. - waltico, Jun 9, 2010

I'd go so far as to say all English nouns are neutral, since we don't have articles or adjectives that have gender. There are some nouns that are referred to as "she", like ships, but that's tradition, not grammar. - KevinB, Jun 9, 2010