Favorita-Favoritas?

Question

If you're using masculine "favourite" you'd say "favorito" In plural it would be "favoritos"

In feminine "favourite" is "favorita" My question is, would the plural of the feminine "favorita" be "favoritas", or just "favoritos"? I would have assumed it would be "favoritas" but everywhere I've looked has said "favoritos", even for a feminine context.

E.g "These flowers are my favourites" should be "Estas flores son mis favoritas" But according to Spanish Dicts translation its "Estas flores son mis favoritos"

Is there a rule I'm missing about gender and nouns? Also what do you do if you don't know the gender?

Thanks

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Feb 20, 2017

Answer 1

Seeing all three translators making the same error is disconcerting, but I'm with Bosque: "Estas flores son mis favoritas" not "Estas flores son mis favoritos."

For your second question, if gender is unknown default to masculine adjective.

Answer 2

There is no reason for this word to break the rules. It should be favoritas. Occasionally mistakes are made.

A search of these two phrases in quotes shows a clear winner:

"estas son mis favoritas" 93,400 hits

"estas son mis favoritos" 10 hits

Sentences at linguee (I only included the first two there are other examples):

http://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/estas+son+mis+favoritas.html

La sesión de estudio Queridos míos, estas son mis palabras favoritas para decirle a alguien:.

Estas son mis bandas favoritas, pero si te fijas, todas se fundaron en los noventa o antes.

Answer 3

The only time you defer to the masculine in the plural is when you have a mixed group of people. Ex. Estos chicos y estas chicas son muy altos. Maite y Pablo son cubanos.