These nouns are: Mi caballo es negro y mi yegua parda. In those cases, you can always look it up on a dictionary, such as the Diccionario de la Lengua Espaola. Little by little, and loads of practice is the best remedy. (university) (United Kingdom) a. la vacaciones (F) to take a vacation tomarse unas vacaciones intransitive verb 2. While most nouns that end with a particular consonant or vowel are generally classified as either masculine or feminine, nouns that end with z do not follow a guideline. I hope you find what youre looking for here during your journey into Espaol . Los nios juegan en el parque. Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. We covered o above because it really requires its own section, but this is a good general rule of thumb. Names of rivers, lakes, and oceans are usually masculine; names of mountains are usually feminine. Origin adjectives express where people or things come from. Learn and practice Spanish * Daily practice * Find your level (proficiency test) * Spanish for beginners * Travel Spanish, A1 | A2 | B1 | B2 | C1 Find your level. el day is masculine and is the ONLY exception. NEWMAGICFOR THE NEWAGE Daring to challenge old stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding magical practice, New Millenni. For any person or animal that is masculine, these are the articles to use: For any person or animal that is feminine, these are the articles to use: For example. Lingua Linkup. Therefore, its correct to say: Tengo cien pesos. La quiete - the quiet. Regardless of the rules we stated above, if the word is referring to an animal or a person, then the article must correspond to the gender of the animal or person. If you know your endings and what gender they fall into, the onlyexception to keep in mind is when the word refers to a person, an animal or an occupation because the person or animal will determine the gender of the word. So far, youve learned some of the most common endings used to form feminine and masculine words in Spanish and their exceptions. The general rule is that Spanish nouns that end in -a are feminine. Search millions of Spanish-English example sentences from our dictionary, TV shows, and the internet. Because of this, he has really hard opinions about AP Style. My horse is black and my mare brown. Colors are ADJECTIVES. Privacy | Terms of Use. We can include el/la cineasta within this group. Some examples are hijo (son), zapato (shoe) and mono (monkey). From students and tourists to doctors and soldiers whove moved and visited here over the years. * This is the only word ending in -ua that takes a masculine article. Luis dog is white. Spanish gender is a complex topic. For 15 years we've taught Spanish to hundreds of thousands of learners. Why? The pink t-shirt is too big. La pared est recin pintada. Watch out! Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning. Nouns ending in o are usually masculine, and nouns ending in a are usually feminine. That means you have to know when to use El or La for every single noun. My mom has a cherry tree. Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. Este semestre est bien pesado.I desperately need a vacation! Can vacaciones be singular? Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below - Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). I hope you find what youre looking here during your journey into Espaol Read More About Me, Venir Conjugation 101: Conjugate Venir In Spanish. LONERS - words that end with any of the letters in LONERS are usually masculine. I can help you with that! Here there are some examples: El cuento (tale) La cuenta (account, sum). But it is something that even advanced students mix up once in a while. What Mono means? Even though these endings can generally help you with the gender of a noun, there are some words that do not follow these rules. Now lets see how to know if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish when talking about people and animals. We said words that end in -or are masculine. Beware of exceptions! All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. Most adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. Why is a car masculine but a house feminine? This can be confusing, especially when some words, like persona (person), can refer to a person that is man or a woman. When My Masculine Met My Feminine | Tijana Tamburic | TEDxBucharest Check these examples of sentences with colors in Spanish: El rosa es mi color preferido. Because of this, most people assume that vestido is feminine, only to find out that theyre wrong. Hay un frente fro en la ciudad. The Ultimate Tip-Sheet to Articles in Spanish: El vs La, Un vs Una [2022], Puzzle Solved: Why nouns in Spanish are feminine and masculine [2022]. Soccer is very boring. Sugared water is bad for your health. But really, the LONERS rule will work for you almost every time. Unfortunately, there are not as many rules to know whether a noun in Spanish is masculine. All of the nouns ending with -o are usually masculine: el bolgrafo, el dinero, el edificio, el vaso, etc. And it gets easier with time and practice. But that has changed with time, and thus we end up with rules that are blurry which do not help when those starting to learn Spanish. Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. The same thing in the other direction the rules say it should be el, but the word is actually la. It's time to Get to Grips with Spanish. The ending -a is a good indicator that youre most likely dealing with a feminine Spanish word. Here are the exceptions to this rule. We know that a person can be a man or a woman. For living things (such as people and animals), the grammatical gender is associated with the biological gender: El perro de Luis es blanco. el gato male cat -Tud, like in the word actitud (attitude) is also a common ending for feminine nouns. La juez es muy puntual. El toro es muy agresivo y la vaca muy tranquila. man, dog, house). Just like photo is an abbreviation of photograph,fotois the short way of saying fotografa. The words doctorA, arquitectA, are relatively new, this is why we cant craft a perfect rule. Names of lakes, oceans, seas, and rivers. As you learned before, many Spanish masculine words end with -n. Its the persons gender that will determine whether we use el or la. Benoit Hamon, CEO de SINGA, est venu sur Komune pour donner des faits face aux ides For these nouns, all you have to do is change the definite article to reflect whether the person in question is male or female. Theres a cold front in the city. La maestra tiene dos gatitas.The teacher has two kitties. " El nio es bonito y gordo ". We only say "el agua" only because it's smoother to pronounce than "la aqua." Period. They have a master's degrees in English from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Missouri Columbia. You could possibly sayel tortugo to refer to a male turtle, but it might get you a weird look or two. In fact, a few masculine words also end with this vowel. Te lo has pasado bien en las vacaciones? Words that end in -in are feminine nouns, such as religin (religion). Dont be shy and post a message! Mi gatita est enferma. While most nouns refer to objects and concepts that dont have gender, there are also the nouns that do. Several Spanish nouns have a masculine and a feminine form, for example, hijo - son and hija - daughter.Another example is mdico - male doctor and mdica - female doctor.. An intransitive verb is one that does not require a direct object (e.g. La verdad puede ser dolorosa. Esa cantante es muy talentosa. You can use the word that best fits a noun to determine if it's masculine or feminine. Because all the nouns that end with -in are feminine words in Spanish. Qu bonito est tu labial! Animals With A Regular Masculine And Feminine Form. Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. If the noun is plural and feminine, then use the plural, feminine ending (usually - las ). In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. If you want to learn more Spanish, subscribe to my newsletter for free! The gender of the word does not change even when the person it refers to is masculine. Then little by little you will learn the others. This couch is very comfortable. But, as youll see in the examples below, some popular words are the exception to this rule. and the Spanish Civil War failed in reality to place him in a distinctly different camp from Chamberlain and . This name is also derived from the Hebrew name Yitzhak which means ' one who rejoices.'. But for example to most of us the word mdicAsounds wrong- we wouldnt use it. I hope you have enjoyed this article about masculine and feminine in Spanish! 0 && stateHdr.searchDesk ? Dijiste que the letters of the alphabet are masculine, pero son feminine, Muchas gracias, Ann! Its important to know the grammatical gender of a noun in Spanish because all of the elements referring to them (articles, adjectives, pronouns) will agree in grammatical gender, too: There are some rules that you can follow when it comes to identifying masculine and feminine in Spanish. Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. The light is quite bright. El patn elctrico es muy prctico. Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. The same goes for some words that end in -o that are actually feminine: la mano, la radio, la foto, etc. The adjective ending in Spanish always depends on the noun it modifies. 2. The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. When talking about people, animals and occupations things get a bit blurry. Even if the nouns are in singular! Many people learning Spanish assume that these are neutral nouns. See answer (1) Copy. A lot of them are identical or almost identical to words you already know in English! And with -(a)tra, especially in the medical field: el/la foniatra, el/la pediatra, el/la obstetra. Fortunately, even the exceptions have rules. As you can see, below that chart, youll then see the el & la exceptions for Spanish words. Im going to list them one by one, and also I will teach you what the exceptions are if there are any. *People, animals and occupations have their own set of rules. There are a few exceptions to this rule (for example, la mano and el mapa ). Join the Tell Me In Spanish community and get a copy of my step-by-step Spanish Learners Roadmaps and tricky synonyms & vocab cheat sheets. Tu casa es grande y bonita. Uncle and aunt, for example, are el to andla ta. But, sometimes a word is a shorter forms of a longer word, like moto or radio. For example, we usually say la moto for motorcycle, which ends in an -o. Subscribe to the Lawless Spanish newsletter, New lessons and features in your inbox every Thursday. . Hubo mil quinientos invitados.There were one thousand five hundred guests. Be one of them! Create an account to start this course today. It is usually at the end of words that describe people, like artista (artist) and realista (realist). Please check your email and click the link to confirm your subscription - gracias! However, on top of its irregularities, this verb also has E to I and E to IE stem changes in certain tenses. Encarga doscientas galletas.Order two hundred cookies. trabajador (feminine trabajadora, masculine plural trabajadores, feminine plural trabajadoras) hard-working Synonyms: currante, trabajante; Noun . Feminine and masculine nouns ending in -E. Nouns ending in -e can be masculine and feminine. For those who are serious about their Spanish, there is nothing like the entire Fluenz journey including our digital App, the face-to-face Online Immersion, and the six-day experiences in Mexico City, Barcelona, or Oaxaca. Spanish Language Dictations Level Beginner #001. However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. endings to determine the gender of a word in Spanish. And if theres another word between the definite article (el/la) and the noun, we use the feminine article: La extensa rea / La imponente aula / La hermosa guila. Nouns ending with -dez and -umbre are usually feminine, too: la solidez, la desnudez, la costumbre, la incertidumbre, etc. This semester is really tough. Mi primo tambin es inteligente. If the noun is masculine and singular, use the masculine, singular ending (usually - o ). Your email address will not be published. Composition 2 - 1020 Tema: Vacation plans Imagine you are planning your next vacation with your best friend to a Spanish speaking country or a specific city (assigned by your instructor). Days and months are masculine: el lunes, el mircoles, el sbado, este abril, ese enero, etc. Because aguas is plural in the second example, the s on the end of the article las breaks up the stressed a in aguas. Passive Voice in Spanish: Examples & Practice, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, What are Cognates in Spanish? This site also participates in other affiliate programs, including CJ and other sites, and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies, but in no way increases the cost to you if you opt to make a purchase from my links. To know if a noun is masculine or feminine, you should look to see what letter(s) the word ends with. by Classroom52. Luca tiene cualidades muy buenas. Just like with nouns, Spanish masculine adjectives usually end in the vowel -O like "Bonito" and "Creativo", e.g. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. I love smoked salmon. Most masculine nouns end in -o, like hermano, meaning 'brother' and most feminine nouns end in -a, like hermana, meaning 'sister'. I desperately need a vacation! There are three genders in Spanish: masculine, feminine, and neutral. "Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions." As a romance language, Spanish has grammatical gender whose purpose is to express whether a noun is masculine or feminine. So how come it's "el problema" and not "la problema" since "el" should always modify a masculine noun and "la" a feminine noun. Also see my lesson on the stressed A, which causes feminine nouns to take the masculine article. Test yourself on the gender of Spanish nouns: Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless Spanish account to take these tests. The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. Feminine forms. Your voice is so high-pitched. My parents spent the Easter holidays in Argentina. If you have the word for friend, it refers to a person correct? Las aguas azucaradas son malas para la salud. Her bedroom is purple. In the tables below, youll find the most common endings for feminine words in Spanish. All rights reserved. Words ending in -ed (if the stress falls on this syllable). Su mano es muy pequeo.His hand is very small. Create your account. For that reason, in this guide, Ill provide you with all the key information you need to know to determine the gender of nouns in Spanish. Think youve got it? La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. Nouns that end with -ma, -pa, -ta, or any of the letters in the word LONERS are usually masculine. Your email address will not be published. The same goes for nouns ending with -or: el amor, el dolor, el error, el sabor, etc. Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine. Then its time to test yourself with a quick quiz we put together. This is why despite how difficult it is to learn Spanish, we are confident there is a realistic and achievable path to fluency. Why? In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. Our car is dirty. Claudias make-up is very good. The waitress doesnt work on Thursday. As explained before, a big portion of masculine words in Spanish end with an -o. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! Those singers are Spanish. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and getting angry about things on. Your house is big and pretty. According to the standard rules, you would think the opposite, but as youll see in the exceptions below, youll learn the nuances with the Spanish language. One other common word that ends in -a but that is masculine is the word el da (day). Sus zapatos son muy caros. While this is actually true for a lot of words, there are so many exceptions to this rule that it often becomes more of a problem than a solution. Common exceptions: not feminine, masculine El mapa- the map- masculine El da- the day- masculine. That pattern works for things too. The letters of the alphabet are feminine: la a, la be, la ce, la de, etc. If a color is working as a Spanish adjective, it will need to change its gender to agree with the noun unless such a color ends with a consonant or -e. SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. 4 Answers. Necesito un respiro de mi familia despus de la reunin. First of all, what is a noun? Discover word endings used for feminine and masculine nouns in Spanish, explore exceptions,. (Administration) vacancy vacances plural feminine noun holidays pluriel (Brit) holiday (Brit) vacation (USA) les grandes vacances the summer holidays (Brit) the summer vacation (USA) prendre des vacances to take a holiday (Brit) to take a vacation (USA) prendre ses vacances to take one's holidays (Brit) to take one's vacation (USA) Voy a viajar a Mxico durante las vacaciones de verano. And they can be a little confusing because sometimes the noun endings change (the masculineel doctor and the feminine la doctora), but sometimes they dont (the masculineel poeta and the femininela poeta). Plural of Masculine Nouns [edit | edit source]. Browse Spanish translations from Spain, Mexico, or any other Spanish-speaking country. Take Note: Do not get mixed up! Me urge una vacacin! All rights reserved. I like the pink dress. We only do this when those words start with a stressed a sound. When it comes to the world of animals, things can get even more complicated. While some exceptions (like la mano) are just exceptions, many words that seemingly end in -o are actually shortenings of other words. How do numbers and gender affect adjectives in Spanish? Fast, easy, reliable language certification, 35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans. The balcony is very big. El ni o - the male child / la ni a - the female child. There are some words that end with -o, -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS that are feminine. El vestidor est ocupado. These are some of the nouns whose endings cannot change. In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. 08, 2020, https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/, Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. A Spanish noun is a word we use to name people, things, concepts, places, and animals. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. The dish is white with blue stripes. This is the only noun ending that does not have a guideline gender classification. (m) means that a noun is masculine. The judge is always on time. When working as adjectives, numbers have to agree in gender and number with the noun they are modifying. The last three of them are actually abbreviations of feminine compound words: la radiofona, la motocicleta, la fotografa. La comida estuvo muy rica. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). The man sneezed.). My students are already speaking Spanish and using it in their everyday lives. For those interested in a little history, masculine Spanish nouns that end in-ta,-pa and-ma tend to come from Greek originally. However, the word persona is always a feminine word. NOTE: The masculine gender has been used for brevity and includes the feminine gender. Unlike the masculine, theres no fun acronym for feminine nouns. Well break it down into three basic groups. These nouns keep the same spelling, regardless of gender a fact that cuts down the number of words you have to memorize to speak and write Spanish like a native. Whether its a good idea to split the world into two genders is a subject for a different article, but for now well go through the various kinds of nouns that switch genders. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldnt trust them fully. L'immigration est + masculine que fminine : INFO ou INFOX ? [Determiner] + [noun] + [verb conjugated] + [adjective]. Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. The name Isaac means 'he will laugh.'. Lesson outline 1. La mesera descansa los jueves. One of the first things that Spanish students learn is that most Spanish nouns that end in -o are masculine and most that end in -a are feminine. Comment *document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "afd5b14b53088abe26398d903d076933" );document.getElementById("a465f5e1c1").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Lucia has very nice qualities. In Spanish nationalities are expressed through origin adjectives (known as gentilicios in Spanish). Youre more likely to hearel gato when someone is talking about a generic cat, for example. Feminine nouns have different letters at the end of them than masculine ones. If you happen to have an excellent grasp on etymology, youll have a leg up! In many cases, the worst that can happen to you is that your Spanish will not sound very good: La problema es que no tengo tiempo. SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. Animals With Irregular Masculine And Feminine Forms. All of these expressions, as well as a number of others, have one thing in common. This means that every time you use a noun, you must express whether its a feminine or masculine word. Because the gender of the noun changes the article or adjective that you can use with the noun. Its "Water" in Spanish is not masculine. And because it is an occupation, we said that those that end in -a, tend to stay the same. 1000 5th St, suite 200 If a word ends with these three letters, you can be almost certain its a feminine noun. https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/ (accessed var d = (new Date()).toString().split(' ').splice(1,3).join(' '); 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. Most Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine, and most ending in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions. In addition to these anomalies, there are other Spanish gender exceptions that you must keep in mind. Yet if you are referring to a person or occupation this is what happens: LA espa = The spy (if the spy is a woman. Your lipstick is so pretty! In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. We know that all people have gender, but in Spanish all nouns have gender. Mi padres pasaron las vacaciones de Semana Santa en Argentina. The Masculine and feminine 1 Whack-a-mole. The following words are feminine when plural, but when they are singular, these words are masculine: Another exception is that the el or la can change the context of the word: Online Spanish Tutors - Native Speakers. The picture identification task consisted of a booklet (which subjects read), containing a story about two characters preparing to go on, For example, the domain order for choosing the destination of a. Although words that end in -a are usually feminine, we already know that the words with -ma at the end of them are masculine. Uruguay es muy bonito. Exceptions: el mapa, el da, el planeta, el sof, el problema, el tema, el sistema, el idioma, el drama, etc. vacacion is more commonly used in plural than in singular. You cant apply it to plural nouns or that would mean that every word would be masculine. La parte - the part. The Amazon River is the worlds largest river. Adjectives that end with an -e or a consonant cannot be modified to express the Spanish grammatical gender. This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. When we have 2 or more nouns with different genre (one is masculine and the other one is feminine), and there is 1 adjective used to describe both of them, the genre of this adjective will be masculine. All the Spanish nouns ending in cin, -sin, -tad, -tud, -dad or umbre are feminine: There are some Spanish nouns that have the same form for both masculine and feminine. vacacin ( bah - kah - syohn ) feminine noun 1. Is vacation feminine or masculine in Spanish? Both are fem. 1. One might phrase it like thisand I am sincerely sorry if the address here is too masculine, but there is no help for it. Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Be careful since you may fall into a trap of gender thinking. When you are starting out in Spanish knowing the gender of nouns is very difficult. frias, sair de frias, frias [feminine, vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacanza, andare in vacanza, (passare le vacanze), Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes, Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. In these cases, we use. -A, -in, -dad, -tad and -tud are all endings for feminine words. In both theFluenz online programand the Fluenz Spanish Immersions, we take it one step at a time. We do this in order to avoid a cacophony, a mixture of unpleasant sounds to our ears. Therefore, "red" is "rojo" but it becomes "roja" with a. Lessons for Adults & Kids. Let's look at the word persona (person) to help explain this idea. If you look at texts 30 years ago you would never find LA arquitectA, it would have been LA arquitectO. The truth can be painful. One of the biggest exceptions to the LONERS rule we talked about for masculine nouns above is-in. Your neighbor is very noisy. As youll see in a moment, most words that end in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions. These noun endings can tip you off that a noun is probably feminine. Languages are masculine: el espaol, el ingls, el portugus, el mandarn, el ruso, etc. List of colors in Spanish 1. Given that this may be a new concept for new learners, many people wonder what grammatical gender in Spanish is. Quiero un caf, por favor. As we mention in the masculine section, many words that end in-e are masculine. And of course, they are all derived from the isms of the previous rule. by Kcastonguay. El frica El Agua- Las Agua (plural) the waters When describing a masculine noun like "Amigo", we must use a masculine adjective as well, such as "Honesto". Pink is my favorite color. So with people you may not know well, perhaps someone older, or people of authority/higher status than oneself such as a college professor. El plato es blanco con rayas azules. As a result, depending on the noun, a number can be either feminine or masculine. Here are two articles that help shed some light on the subject: Puzzle Solved: Why nouns in Spanish are feminine and masculine, The Ultimate Tip-Sheet to Articles in Spanish: (El vs. La, Un vs. Una), Your email address will not be published. All rights reserved. (Check out this link to learn how to use articles in Spanish). The endings are not so obvious. Learn about masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish. Collins Complete Spanish Electronic Dictionary HarperCollins Publishers 2011. Browse Spanish translations from Spain, Mexico, or any other Spanish-speaking country. In plain English, this book explains the Masculine & Feminine elements of Spanish, plus the rules around Singular & Plural. The adjective for Canad .