Buenas Días
It’s not uncommon for an exasperated student of Spanish to declare: “But día ends in -a! Why are you saying buenos instead of buenas!?” They’re right to be confused. After all, one of the first lessons we learn about Spanish nouns is that if they end in -o, they’re masculine, and if they end in -a they’re feminine. Right? Well, there are exceptions to this rule—and días is one.
In this article, we’ll explain why you need to use buenos with días, and talk about other masculine nouns disfrazados(disguised) as feminine nouns.
Why Is Buenas Días Incorrect?
One of the more difficult concepts for English-speaking students of Spanish to grasp is that Spanish nouns and adjectives must agree in number and gender. Tardes and noches are both feminine nouns. However, días is a masculine noun, even though the word día ends in the letter a.
Need to brush up on noun-adjective agreement in Spanish? Make sure to read this article and do the associated interactive lessons!
Masculine Nouns Ending in A
While you might think that Spanish nouns are trying to confuse you, we promise that this is not the case. It’s often the etymology of the word that’s to blame!
Etymology refers to the origin of a word and how it has evolved.
Día isn’t the only tricky masculine noun that ends in an -a in Spanish. Here are a few more. Note that, in some cases, there actually is a feminine version of the word. However, the meaning of the word changes between the masculine and feminine version.
Read more about the gender of nouns in this article.
It’s important to memorize the gender of the noun in order to not make any mistakes. Using the incorrect article (la or el) can even lead to serious misunderstandings! For example, if you’re in the hospital and you need help putting a bandage on your wound, you’ll need to ask the nurses for help with la cura (the cure or remedy), not el cura (the priest).
Some Spanish nouns that end in -ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine. Many of these words were originally taken from Greek.
¡Buenas!
¡Buenas!can be used on its own as an informal greeting. It’s a truncated version of the phrases buenas tardesand buenas noches. You might now be wondering if we use buenos instead of buenas in the morning. We don’t. Buenas—with an a—is used at all times of the day, whenever you want to informally greet someone.
The greeting buenas is informal and should not be used in formal situations. You can tell your friends buenas, but you probably shouldn’t use it with your boss.
Ready to learn more about other tricky words in Spanish? Check out these articles!
