Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. The dressing room is occupied. The 27 Letters of the Spanish Alphabet [2022], Learn Basic Spanish: The First 10 Spanish Words You Need To Learn [2022]. Maybe you could make up your own! As established before, a Spanish noun can be classified as masculine or feminine depending on its gender. A common mistake made by Spanish learners is to confuse the number one, uno, with un, which means a/an. This is a feminine word because it is a short form of the longer word, la motocicleta. Nouns ending with -a are usually feminine: la mesa, la cama, la casa, la palabra, etc. I desperately need a vacation! Some of the exceptions occur because of how the words were treated in other languages, such as Latin and Greek. Equal Opportunity Employment Program The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre hires on the basis of merit and is strongly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion within its community. Languages are masculine: el espaol, el ingls, el portugus, el mandarn, el ruso, etc. How do numbers and gender affect adjectives in Spanish? However your friend is a hypochondriac and you need to assure him/her everything is going to be fine. For example, we usually say la moto for motorcycle, which ends in an -o. Tengo una pluma extra. Cardinal directions are masculine, too: el norte, el sur, el este, el oeste. Your email address will not be published. El ftbol es muy aburrido. Given that this may be a new concept for new learners, many people wonder what grammatical gender in Spanish is. Just like with nouns, Spanish masculine adjectives usually end in the vowel -O like "Bonito" and "Creativo", e.g. Its the same for words ending with -a: el/la espa, el/la polica, el/la gua. Most animal names have a female and a male form, but not all do. Mi padres pasaron las vacaciones de Semana Santa en Argentina. 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. La camisa rosa es muy grande. The judge is always on time. You could possibly sayel tortugo to refer to a male turtle, but it might get you a weird look or two. Which is why it uses the article las which correctly matches the nouns gender. A lot of them are identical or almost identical to words you already know in English! In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. El patn elctrico es muy prctico. My mom has a cherry tree. Subscribe to the Lawless Spanish newsletter, New lessons and features in your inbox every Thursday. Although words that end in -a are usually feminine, we already know that the words with -ma at the end of them are masculine. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! One ending with a final -a, -ista, can be used on words for male or female people, and is both masculine and feminine. Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Este restaurante es muy famoso. man, dog, house). Why? But then you find out that its la foto, not el foto. Well start with the most obvious, which is that most words that end in o are going to be masculine. However, with some specific nouns (especially when we talk about professions) we do replace the -e with an -a, and both forms are correct: El presidente -> La presidente / La presidenta. For those interested in a little history, masculine Spanish nouns that end in-ta,-pa and-ma tend to come from Greek originally. Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. So with people you may not know well, perhaps someone older, or people of authority/higher status than oneself such as a college professor. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. A few of the most common ones are: Any words that are actually a shorter form of a longer word. 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. " El nio es bonito y gordo ". las vacaciones de Navidad, las vacaciones de Pascua, las vacaciones de verano. Because all the nouns that end with -in are feminine words in Spanish. El plato es blanco con rayas azules. Les gusta irse de vacaciones a las Bahamas. Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. La quiete - the quiet. Descubr lo que tu empresa podra llegar a alcanzar. Tu voz es muy chillona. Words that end in -in are feminine nouns, such as religin (religion). You may have come across this strange exception before where the masculine article el is used for a feminine word. Although in English there is no need to think about whether a pencil is a masculine or a feminine noun, it is important in Spanish because the adjectives (i. e. pretty, ugly, small, big) and articles (the equivalents of "the" in Spanish, such as: el, la, los and las) of a sentence must match the gender and number of nouns. You will find them in the list below. places and ideas. We only do this when those words start with a stressed a sound. Since it can be challenging to conjugate, well Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. 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. That pattern works for things too. The use of the masculine gender includes the feminine and is used only to facilitate the reading. Plural of Masculine Nouns [edit | edit source]. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). Just like photo is an abbreviation of photograph,fotois the short way of saying fotografa. Most adjectives in Spanish can be either feminine or masculine depending on the genre of the accompanying noun. 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 articles which accompany a masculine noun are el (definite) / uno (indefinite), while the feminine ones are la (definite) / una (indefinite) . Uruguay es muy bonito. . Luca tiene cualidades muy buenas. An intransitive verb is one that does not require a direct object (e.g. El ao que viene voy a tomarme unas vacaciones en Europa. and the Spanish Civil War failed in reality to place him in a distinctly different camp from Chamberlain and . La verdad puede ser dolorosa. Tu casa es grande y bonita. 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. This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. Create your account. La disco is short for la discoteca, andla foto is short forla fotografa. All rights reserved. I know we said we would only be giving you rules that didnt have any exceptions, the rules above are full proof- its when you get to people and occupations where you need to put your thinking cap on. vacation translate: vacances [feminine, plural], vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacances, passer des. 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. As a result, depending on the noun, a number can be either feminine or masculine. If you dont have one, sign up its free! But for example to most of us the word mdicAsounds wrong- we wouldnt use it. For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . Spanish gender is a complex topic. 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. When using demonstrative pronouns (esta, esa, aquella) with these words, they stay feminine. 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. See answer (1) Copy. 501 lessons. The pink t-shirt is too big. Take the Spanish words for "colour" and "tooth": el color, el diente. . Names of rivers, oceans, and seas are always masculine: el Ro de la Plata, el Amazonas, el Misisipi, el Atlntico, el Pacfico, el Mediterrneo, etc. 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. Unlike the masculine, theres no fun acronym for feminine nouns. Another example of this is la radio, which is a shorter form of the word radiodifusin. These are some of the nouns whose endings cannot change. 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. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". These key rules will make it easier for you! Spanish nouns have a gender, which is either feminine (like la mujer or la luna) or masculine (like el hombre or el sol). Normalmente, voy de vacaciones en diciembre. Take Note: When it comes to living things (people and animals), masculine nouns are always used when referring to a mixed group (no matter how many females or males are) or when talking about the group as a whole. Luis dog is white. After all, how can you know if problema and mano are feminine or masculine? When My Masculine Met My Feminine | Tijana Tamburic | TEDxBucharest Days and months are masculine: el lunes, el mircoles, el sbado, este abril, ese enero, etc. The kids play in the park. All rights reserved. vacacin ( bah - kah - syohn ) feminine noun 1. El telfono is masculine. When they describe a NOUN, they must match its GENDER (masculine/feminine). 2023 Lawless Spanish. Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. He studied English literature and linguistics at New York University, but spent most of his time in college working for the student paper. Again, there is no real reason. My parents spent the Easter holidays in Argentina. The dentists are very young. La pared est recin pintada. Most adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. Some animals, particularly those you dont come in contact with every day, tend to have one accepted Spanish grammatical gender. 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. And with -(a)tra, especially in the medical field: el/la foniatra, el/la pediatra, el/la obstetra. Youre more likely to hearel gato when someone is talking about a generic cat, for example. In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. 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. All nouns in Spanish have a gender, and are either feminine or masculine. 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). Adjectives describing, agua are feminine. Feminine nouns have different letters at the end of them than masculine ones. But, more exceptions! Quiero un caf, por favor. Forms of feminine and masculine nouns. Su mano es muy pequeo.His hand is very small. Its the persons gender that will determine whether we use el or la. is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. Un - unos. Copyright (c) Minerva Webworks LLC All Rights Reserved. You will notice that when adjectives modify such words, they are feminine: El agua est fra o tibia? How to know if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish? The name Isaac means 'he will laugh.'. Singular and plural feminine & masculine maze Maze chase. hand From Latin manus (" hand " ). Fortunately, even the exceptions have rules. Everything weve ever written about Spanish, all in one place. (m) means that a noun is masculine. Words ending simply in -inare often masculine, as in: el camin, el avin, etc., so bear that in mind! It's the person's gender that will determine whether we use el or la. A student learns how to identify gender in Spanish. Adjectives that end with an -e or a consonant cannot be modified to express the Spanish grammatical gender. Nouns ending in o are usually masculine, and nouns ending in a are usually feminine. 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. So how come it's "el problema" and not "la problema" since "el" should always modify a masculine noun and "la" a feminine noun. Here are the exceptions to this rule. We said all words ending in -a are feminine. My kitty is sick. He made the wrong decision. El vestidor est ocupado. El diseo de mi prima no est terminado. The adjective for Italia is italiano. Take Note: To pluralize these Spanish words, you must change the -z for the ending -ces. 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. Even though these endings can generally help you with the gender of a noun, there are some words that do not follow these rules. The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. We say EL agua frA (The cold water). There are some nouns that end in a, but they are not feminine, but masculine: And vice versa, some nouns that end in -o are feminine: When a masculine noun ends in a consonant, its feminine form ends in a (We just have to had an a after that last consonant). Even though the brother is a man, the word persona is always feminine. So, you would have to establish if that friend is a male or a female to determine which article to use. "Uncle" and "aunt," for example, are el to and la ta. There are one hundred chairs available. You will get new updates by email, as well as a copy of my ebook, the Definitive Guide to Learn Conjugations in Spanish. b. holiday (United Kingdom) Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones.You are too stressed out; you should go on holiday. La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. * This is the only word ending in -ua that takes a masculine article. Privacy | Terms of Use. 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. As you might have guessed, all of the tricks were going to cover use word Words ending in -ismo are simply the Spanish counterparts to the English isms because they share the same Latin root. Grammatical gender is a property of Spanish nouns. Nouns that refer to people and animals have two forms. 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. But as you already know, there is no such thing as neutral nouns in Spanish. El periodista trabaja todo el da. When describing a masculine noun like "Amigo", we must use a masculine adjective as well, such as "Honesto". All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. 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. With these rules below, youll know which to use with every word el or la. One of the biggest exceptions to the LONERS rule we talked about for masculine nouns above is-in. These nouns are: Mi caballo es negro y mi yegua parda. Sometimes you cant tell if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish only by its form. So, its important to memorize the feminine words that end with the consonant z. Este semestre est bien pesado.I desperately need a vacation! Or el agua in singular, while las aguas in plural. Unfortunately, there are not as many rules to know whether a noun in Spanish is masculine. Miami Beach, FL 33139, All Rights Reserved, 2017-2023. La botella de Suzy est vaca. What Mono means? As you can see, below that chart, youll then see the el & la exceptions for Spanish words. Exceptions: el mapa, el da, el planeta, el sof, el problema, el tema, el sistema, el idioma, el drama, etc. 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). As you can probably tell, all words that end in -ista denote occupations or stances and such, just like the endings -ist and -yst in English: therapist, marxist, etc. When it comes to the world of animals, things can get even more complicated. I want a coffee, please. As youll see in a moment, most words that end in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions. We can include el/la cineasta within this group. I hope this helps. These noun endings can tip you off that a noun is probably feminine. * These words are shortened from words that do end in A: discoteca, fotografa, motocicleta, pornografa, and radiodifusin. The user may also prefer cheaper vacations and may have desiderata or wishes such as visiting an attraction park in each stop. It is basically just a sign of respect. The food was delicious. I feel like its a lifeline. Helpful, right? . The dish is white with blue stripes. Los peces son muy bonitos. However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. For example, the application developer may write a rule stating that each. We know that a person can be a man or a woman. Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. Create an account to start this course today. And because it is an occupation, we said that those . Key Takeaways: Spanish Noun Gender Nouns ending in -a, -cin, -a, or -dad are usually feminine. (Check out this link to learn how to use articles in Spanish). In contrast to English, the Spanish plural of the masculine forms of these words refers to "not-all-feminine" groups, i.e. Esa cantante es muy talentosa. 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. However, there are a few masculine nouns that end in -a. As we mention in the masculine section, many words that end in-e are masculine. Required fields are marked *. Most words that. I hope you have enjoyed this article about masculine and feminine in Spanish! Words like el reloj (watch) have a gender, but it is not always easy to predict. This means that most Spanish adjectives will change their gender to match the noun. Names of rivers, lakes, and oceans are usually masculine; names of mountains are usually feminine. In plain English, this book explains the Masculine & Feminine elements of Spanish, plus the rules around Singular & Plural. (Translation of vacation from the Cambridge English-Spanish Dictionary Cambridge University Press), (Translation of vacation from the GLOBAL English-Spanish Dictionary 2020 K Dictionaries Ltd), Watch your back!