masculine?
How is the word "Clima" masculine when it ends with the letter a?
5 Answers
There are always exceptions to most rules. In Spanish grammar, there are exceptions. This is one of them. Even though "clima" ends in -a, it is masculine.
This isn't the only word you will find that is an exception. Here are other examples:
el mapa, la mano (it happens with words that end in -o too!), el día, el idioma, el programa, la radio
For professions there are exceptions for example
el joyero la joyera depending on the persons gender el médico la médica el bombero la bombera to mention a few.
There are others that end in o or a and only the article changes and not the ending el piloto la piloto el soldado la soldado el modelo la model
el poeta la poeta el atleta la atleta
The grammar section has a couple sections on gender rules. Hope this helps.
Yes, that word should be thought of as ending in -ma, not just -a. As Franco says, they´re generally of greek origin, and end in A. There´s a good list of them on this site. In fact, I think it´s literally grammar topic 1
There are two others I can remember that are not -ma words, but may be of Greek origin too -- I don´t know
El Planeta y El Mapa.
And of course el Día.
hth
Clima is a Greek word like panorama, cosmpolita, estadista, tema, fonema, teorema, problema, poema. These are all masculine words that end in the letter "a".
