Lists & femininity/masculinity

Question

If I'm writing a list of nouns with an adjective that's going to describe all the nouns, is it correct to use the masculine form of the adjective when the list contains masculine AND feminine nouns?

I'm trying to write "There were many escalators, staircases, and hallways." Can I say "Había muchos ascensores, escaleras, y pasillos," even if escaleras is feminine?

masculinity - 002262dd, Aug 6, 2010

Thanks, Joe. I went ahead and changed it since it was in the heading. A little more blatant there. - LateToDinner, Aug 6, 2010

Answer 1

Hi;

When you are writing list of things you must use the gender of the first word. Example: if we sort the list putting "escaleras" first, will be like this:

"Había muchas escaleras, ascensores y pasillos"

so, you did it fine.

Cuando escribes un listado de cosas debes ocupar el genero de la primera palabra. Ejemplo: si ordenamos la lista poniendo "escaleras" al principio, seria así:

"Había muchas escaleras, ascensores y pasillos"

entonces, como tu lo hiciste esta bien.

Saludos

¡Gracias! - drawthesun, Aug 6, 2010