When describing a masculine noun like "Amigo", we must use a masculine adjective as well, such as "Honesto". As you might have guessed, all of the tricks were going to cover use word One mnemonic device for learning masculine endings is LONERS. In addition to these anomalies, there are other Spanish gender exceptions that you must keep in mind. Youve probably heard this one before: words ending in -a are feminine and words ending in -o are masculine. Gender in Spanish: How to know when a noun is feminine or masculine [2022]. Nuestro coche est sucio. el day is masculine and is the ONLY exception. There are one hundred chairs available. Even though Spanish is a language of exceptions, there are a few guidelines that can help when wanting to determine if a noun is feminine or masculine. 08, 2020, https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/, Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. So, well cover those exceptions below, too. Sugared water is bad for your health. So how come it's "el problema" and not "la problema" since "el" should always modify a masculine noun and "la" a feminine noun. The food was delicious. Learn about masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish. A lot of them are identical or almost identical to words you already know in English! The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. You could possibly sayel tortugo to refer to a male turtle, but it might get you a weird look or two. Also, in plural they keep the feminine definite article (las), because the S avoids the cacophony: las aguas. Get a Step-by-Step Map to Learning Spanish. Exceptions to that rule are la crema and la yema, which come from French and Latin respectively. Voy a viajar a Mxico durante las vacaciones de verano. Here there are some examples: El cuento (tale) La cuenta (account, sum). La serpiente - the serpent. Is vacation feminine or masculine in Spanish? When using adjectives to describe a person, use the gender that the person identifies with. That said, we need to get something out of the way before diving into the rules for gender in Spanish. We know that a person can be a man or a woman. Well the answer is just because . I can help you with that! The song is too long. Search millions of Spanish-English example sentences from our dictionary, TV shows, and the internet. These nouns are: Mi caballo es negro y mi yegua parda. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! For example, we usually say la moto for motorcycle, which ends in an -o. Estamos de vacaciones en la Florida ahora mismo. Plural of Masculine Nouns [edit | edit source]. This is why despite how difficult it is to learn Spanish, we are confident there is a realistic and achievable path to fluency. Janet Long has taught post-secondary Spanish and English for over 15 years. Names of lakes, oceans, seas, and rivers. Professions also refer to people, but are kind of their own subset. As you can see, there are adjectives that follow the regular rule for endings using -o/-as/-os/-as (rojo, amarillo, negro, blanco, morado). (general) a. vacation (United States) Me urge una vacacin! I've still got some vacation time left before the end of the year. "Uncle" and "aunt," for example, are el to and la ta. The wall is newly painted. 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. One of the first things youll find out when learning Spanish is that all nouns have a gender. But as you already know, there is no such thing as neutral nouns in Spanish. These short words keep the gender of the longer word, even if they have -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS at the end. This means that every word for a person, place, thing or idea is either masculine or feminine. SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. Possible excuses include hospitalization. las vacaciones de Navidad, las vacaciones de Pascua, las vacaciones de verano. La camisa rosa es muy grande. For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . These key rules will make it easier for you! Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Nouns ending in o are usually masculine, and nouns ending in a are usually feminine. El Amazonas es el ro ms largo del mundo. Create an account to start this course today. For those interested in a little history, masculine Spanish nouns that end in-ta,-pa and-ma tend to come from Greek originally. (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) For English speakers, it is hard to determine when a noun is feminine or masculine simply because nouns in English have no gender. https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/ (accessed var d = (new Date()).toString().split(' ').splice(1,3).join(' '); Youre more likely to hearel gato when someone is talking about a generic cat, for example. The adjective ending in Spanish always depends on the noun it modifies. Yet if you are referring to a person or occupation this is what happens: EL espa = The spy (if the spy is a man) LA espa = The spy (if the spy is a woman. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. Colors are always masculine, even if they end with -a: el rojo, el negro, el azul, el naranja, el prpura, etc. Why is a car masculine but a house feminine? Tweet. If you have the word for friend, it refers to a person correct? Hay un frente fro en la ciudad. See answer (1) Copy. Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. hand From Latin manus (" hand " ). You may have come across this strange exception before where the masculine article el is used for a feminine word. 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. This restaurant is pretty famous. Qu bonito est tu labial! There are also adjectives where the singular masculine form ends in -e or a consonant, and it keeps the same form in the feminine singular ( verde, azul, gris, marrn) and both gender . Thinking of them together might help you remember their correct gender. NOTE: The masculine gender has been used for brevity and includes the feminine gender. -Fue un lunes, -Ha sido un septiembre hmedo -Nac en el 84 -Son las cinco y cuarto -Poner los puntos sobre las es -La hache delante de la 'a' es muda This couch is very comfortable. Este silln es muy cmodo. From students and tourists to doctors and soldiers whove moved and visited here over the years. (m) means that a noun is masculine. Youll find a few Spanish singular feminine words that end with -a that are preceded by a masculine article. As a result, depending on the noun, a number can be either feminine or masculine. Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning. When using demonstrative pronouns (esta, esa, aquella) with these words, they stay feminine. trabajador (feminine trabajadora, masculine plural trabajadores, feminine plural trabajadoras) hard-working Synonyms: currante, trabajante; Noun . Most words that. Because coming from English you dont have any reference to hold on to, sometimes our memory can only recall so much and we mix up the gender. Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning All Rights Reserved. Normalmente, voy de vacaciones en diciembre. man, dog, house). El patn elctrico es muy prctico. How do numbers and gender affect adjectives in Spanish? I like the pink dress. In the tables below, youll find the most common endings for feminine words in Spanish. Feminine or masculine? What Mono means? There are a few exceptions to this rule (for example, la mano and el mapa ). Su mano es muy pequeo.His hand is very small. El ao que viene voy a tomarme unas vacaciones en Europa. Fortunately, even the exceptions have rules. In this lesson, we'll look at the differences between masculine and feminine nouns and learn some tips to remember them. La luz es bastante brillante. My dogs are very quiet. When you first start learning Spanish, grammatical gender can seem arbitrary and confusing. When working as adjectives, numbers have to agree in gender and number with the noun they are modifying. If you dont have one, sign up its free! Feminine forms. 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. However, the word persona is always a feminine word. Days and months are masculine: el lunes, el mircoles, el sbado, este abril, ese enero, etc. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". This attribute allows us to classify words as either masculine or feminine. But be careful! Unfortunately, there are not as many rules to know whether a noun in Spanish is masculine. He made the wrong decision. But that is also the beauty of a language, and the fact that it is alive and evolving is one of the elements that I find personally interesting. There is not a single pattern, as you can see from the following examples. Nouns ending in -cin, -sin, -dad, -tad and -tud are feminine: la cancin, relacin, la televisin, la expresin, la ciudad, la verdad, la libertad, la amistad, la solicitud, la juventud, etc. 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]. It gives some general rules about how to know if a noun is masculine or feminine. As you can see, most of them are nouns used to describe a persons profession or occupation: And here are some examples of what you can do to mark the gender of these words: [Masculine or feminine determiner] + [noun]+ (adjective). Making educational experiences better for everyone. To keep the sentence consistent, adjectives, articles, and pronouns must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. FR8 En Ville - Location Sort - Masculine/Feminine Group sort. Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. Again, there is no real reason. Part of Paglia's understanding of men's and women's sexual "personae" is shaped by Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian polarity: The former represents the masculine impulse for stoic order and rationality, while the latter represents the feminine drive toward ecstatic, bodily revelry and the chaotic, unpredictable forces of the natural world. However, there are a few masculine nouns that end in -a. Shopping! In those cases, you can always look it up on a dictionary, such as the Diccionario de la Lengua Espaola. This name is also derived from the Hebrew name Yitzhak which means ' one who rejoices.'. Names of rivers, lakes, and oceans are usually masculine; names of mountains are usually feminine. Therefore, vestido (dress) is actually a masculine noun. The L cuts that unpleasant sound: el agua. Your house is big and pretty. The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions, how to tell if a word is masculine or feminine in spanish, what is the difference between masculine and feminine in spanish, 35 Vegetables Translated to Spanish | The Ultimate Master List, Demonstrative Adjectives: This, That, These, and Those Get Them Right. * These words are shortened from words that do end in A: discoteca, fotografa, motocicleta, pornografa, and radiodifusin. The pink t-shirt is too big. Tengo una pluma extra. The opposite time of day, la noche (night), is feminine, so you can think of them as a pair. You are too stressed out; you should go on holiday. Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine. This is the only noun ending that does not have a guideline gender classification. Este semestre est bien pesado.I desperately need a vacation! Search millions of Spanish-English example sentences from our dictionary, TV shows, and the internet. Because there area lot. When you are starting out in Spanish knowing the gender of nouns is very difficult. El telfono is masculine. No me di cuenta, ya lo correg , Your email address will not be published. This is a little more complicated but my recommendation is to learn the more common words in a first moment. Many people mistakenly think the gender of a noun in Spanish is determined by who uses that object. La parte - the part. And because it is an occupation, we said that those . These adjectives are derived from the name of that place. However, in certain situations, changing the gender of a noun can also change its meaning, as you can see in the graphic and examples below: Mi mam tiene un cerezo. Me encanta el salmn ahumado. Uruguay is very pretty. As you can see, below that chart, you'll then see the "el" & "la . Is vacation in Spanish masculine or feminine? Well start with the most obvious, which is that most words that end in o are going to be masculine. La familia se fue de vacaciones a Mjico. Distinguishing between gender is fairly straightforward - words ending in an 'a' are usually feminine, where those ending in 'e' are masculine. Reading comprehension. For instance, a table (la mesa) is feminine, while a desk (el escritorio) is masculine. Spanish Survival Kit: Asking for Directions [2022]. It's time to Get to Grips with Spanish. In any case, if a word has any of the following endings you can be absolutely sure that it is masculine. 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. A common mistake made by Spanish learners is to confuse the number one, uno, with un, which means a/an. When talking about people, animals and occupations things get a bit blurry. (= Is the water cold or lukewarm?). Grammatical gender is a property of Spanish nouns. This power point explains how Spanish nouns, articles and adjectives have gender and number. Adjectives describing, agua are feminine. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. -Tud, like in the word actitud (attitude) is also a common ending for feminine nouns. El diseo de mi prima no est terminado. As mentioned above, this rule comes into effect with amounts superior to two hundred. In fact, a few masculine words also end with this vowel. 1000 5th St, suite 200 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. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". However, the gender in Spanish language can be really tricky sometimes. All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. Masculine forms. Esta camisa es negra. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). Because of this, he has really hard opinions about AP Style. This can be very confusing. Your lipstick is so pretty! thelanguagetutors Follow Advertisement Recommended Spanish Lesson - Lesson 3: Definite and Indefinite articles Swagatam Mitra 3.5k views 9 slides Tu voz es muy chillona. Soy Daniela Sanchez, Ive taught Spanish in Mexico to a wide array of foreigners. Im going to list them one by one, and also I will teach you what the exceptions are if there are any. We only say "el agua" only because it's smoother to pronounce than "la aqua." Period. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and getting angry about things on. All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Ese color es bonito. Very often our students at Fluenz get genders mixed An exception is nene (colloquial term for little kid): el nene -> la nena. "Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions." And it gets easier with time and practice. ). The words doctorA, arquitectA, are relatively new, this is why we cant craft a perfect rule. Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). Passive Voice in Spanish: Examples & Practice, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, What are Cognates in Spanish? If you look at texts 30 years ago you would never find LA arquitectA, it would have been LA arquitectO. To put it in simple terms, if youre working with a Spanish masculine noun, you must make sure its modifiers are also masculine. endings to determine the gender of a word in Spanish. 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. To keep the sentence consistent, adjectives, articles, and pronouns must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. 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.. Mi padres pasaron las vacaciones de Semana Santa en Argentina. Fast, easy, reliable language certification, 35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans. And its true that theres no logical way to divide the world into masculine and feminine. Another example of this is la radio, which is a shorter form of the word radiodifusin. Lingua Linkup, May. 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. On the other hand, when working as nouns, Spanish colors are always masculine. Mi gatita est enferma. And with -(a)tra, especially in the medical field: el/la foniatra, el/la pediatra, el/la obstetra. Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. This means that every time you use a noun, you must express whether its a feminine or masculine word. Te lo has pasado bien en las vacaciones? * This is the only word ending in -ua that takes a masculine article. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. I like the red bag more. Therefore, you simply need to memorize the gender of words that end with z. Probar is an O to UE stem-changing verb. La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. Sometimes, all we need is a quick and simple explanation to remove the obstacles, bringing the goal of being fluent in Spanish within grasping distance. Follow this link if you want to know WHY nouns have a gender in Spanish. Many students assume that confusing the gender of words in Spanish is not a big deal. Claudias make-up is very good. And because it is an occupation, we said that those that end in -a, tend to stay the same. In both theFluenz online programand the Fluenz Spanish Immersions, we take it one step at a time. (university) (United Kingdom) a. la vacaciones (F) to take a vacation tomarse unas vacaciones intransitive verb 2. Those singers are Spanish. If you liked this post, you can share it with someone else who might find it helpful! Or el agua in singular, while las aguas in plural. "Water" in Spanish is not masculine. Adjectives that end with an -e or a consonant cannot be modified to express the Spanish grammatical gender. For these nouns, all you have to do is change the definite article to reflect whether the person in question is male or female. The Masculine and feminine 2 Whack-a-mole. We said all words ending in -a are feminine. Do you have any QUESTION or comment about Spanish language? This means that most Spanish adjectives will change their gender to match the noun. . Therefore, its correct to say: Tengo cien pesos. That being said, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Nouns ending with -a are usually feminine: la mesa, la cama, la casa, la palabra, etc. Me gusta el vestido rosa. Collins Complete Spanish Electronic Dictionary HarperCollins Publishers 2011. Sometimes the word is the same and we can only figure out the meaning with the articles or pronouns that go with them: El capital (money) La capital (capital city), El editorial (editorial) La editorial (publisher), El pendiente (earring) La pendiente (slope). Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones. Test yourself on the gender of Spanish nouns: Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless Spanish account to take these tests. Dictionaries always indicate the grammatical gender of a noun! In Spanish, the masculine form of these animals almost always takes precedence. Theres a cold front in the city. For these types of cases, there are certain guidelines that can give you a better idea of how Spanish gender is formed. El nino y el gato. coming up later. Also, notice that there are masculine nouns that end in -l, -z, and -n. I would recommend you learn the following by heart. That color is pretty. You cant apply it to plural nouns or that would mean that every word would be masculine. Required fields are marked *. I want a coffee, please. We only do this when those words start with a stressed a sound. Something like ZAD? There are three genders in Spanish: masculine, feminine, and neutral. Your voice is so high-pitched. Feminine and masculine nouns ending in -E. Nouns ending in -e can be masculine and feminine. 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. The dentists are very young. They actually come from Ancient Greek and they are all masculine: el dilema, el emblema, el teorema, el fonema, el lexema. Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. Why? Then little by little you will learn the others. A noun is a word referring to a person, animal, place, thing, feeling or idea (e.g. The two most basic rules about gender are based on the last letter of the noun: A word that ends in -o is masculine, and a word that ends in -a is feminine. places and ideas. In English, you use a form of the verb 'to be' (am, is, are, was, were, etc.) Here we will explain the rules, and then the 3 categories of exceptions: Below are a number of words you would think should be la according to the rules above, but they are el, as they are exceptions to the el/la rules. Which is why it uses the article las which correctly matches the nouns gender. If you were referring to a male friend, which article would you use EL or LA? We can check this by going to the plural and to its modifiers: The waters = las aguas" The water is cold = "El agua est fria." 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. Hay cien sillas disponibles. Your email address will not be published. When referring to people or animals, most of the time Spanish nouns can be transformed into feminine words by simply replacing the -o with an -a. But if you paid close attention to those words, you may have noticed that none of them had the suffix -in: El balcn es muy grande. My cousin is also smart. It's important to remember that the gender of a noun refers only to the grammar of the word, not to the person that it refers to. Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. 2. El ni o - the male child / la ni a - the female child. Su habitacin es morada. El periodista trabaja todo el da. We say EL agua frA (The cold water). Dolphins are adorable. 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). Most adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. 501 lessons. But fortunately, Spanish grammatical gender does have some rules you can follow to figure out when you needel and when you needla. nine fem--nn 1 : of the female sex 2 : characteristic of or belonging to women : womanly 3 : of, relating to, or making up the class of words that ordinarily includes most of those referring to females a feminine noun in Latin femininely adverb feminineness noun femininity fem--nin-t- noun feminine 2 of 2 noun 1 La verdad puede ser dolorosa. And to improve your Spanish even further, book a lesson with me! #RAEconsultas Although vacaciones is the majority use, the singular vacacin is also correct: la vacacin veraniega (P. Lan Entralgo). Many people learning Spanish assume that these are neutral nouns. As we mention in the masculine section, many words that end in-e are masculine. Just think of the Spanish word for problem: el problema! The dish is white with blue stripes. El toro es muy agresivo y la vaca muy tranquila. (2020,May 08 ). 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. by Kcastonguay. Languages are masculine: el espaol, el ingls, el portugus, el mandarn, el ruso, etc. The grammatical gender is an arbitrary classification that divides nouns into two types: masculines or feminines. 0 && stateHdr.searchDesk ? Esa cantante es muy talentosa. One warning, though: the S in LONERS refers to nouns that are singular, like el mes. Here is a quick overview of the topics well cover: By the end of this article, youll have a more solid understanding of how Spanish gender works. 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. Your neighbor is very noisy. Feminine: (a, cin, dad) La chica- the girl. Colours in Spanish. My kitty is sick. Have you tried it yet? Memorizing just the exceptions will be a lot easier than memorizing every single word in the Spanish language. who lives in the bear's club jupiter,

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