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Favorita-Favoritas?

Favorita-Favoritas?

3
votes

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

1319 views
updated Feb 20, 2017
posted by Vaderluke
Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Feb 20, 2017

3 Answers

4
votes

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.

updated Feb 21, 2017
posted by jellonz
4
votes

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.

updated Feb 20, 2017
edited by bosquederoble
posted by bosquederoble
2
votes

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.

updated Feb 20, 2017
posted by Daniela2041