1.Gender of Nouns:Part 1

A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea.

• Person: John, girl, dentist
  Place: garden, university, Venezuela
  Thing: book, car, tomato
  Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

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In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.

• Masculine	Feminine
  el chico boy	la chica girl
  el jardín garden	la universidad university
  el libro book	la revista magazine
  el miedo fear	la libertad liberty

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The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female.

• Masculine	Feminine
  man	woman
  tiger	tigress
  aviator	aviatrix

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The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures.

• el gato male cat	la gata female cat
  el perro male dog	la perra female dog
  el chico boy	la chica girl
  el abuelo grandfather	la abuela grandmother

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How are all of these masculine nouns alike?

• el gato
  el perro
  el chico
  el abuelo

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

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How are all of these feminine nouns alike?

• la gata
  la perra
  la chica
  la abuela

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

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"El" and "la" both mean "the."

• el chico (the boy)
  la chica (the girl)

• el perro (the male dog)
  la gata (the female cat)

Note: These two words (el, la) are called "definite articles." You will learn more about them in a later lesson.

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What do you notice about the last letter of these nouns?

• Masculine
  
  gato
  perro
  chico
  abuelo
  
  
  Feminine
  
  gata
  perra
  chica
  abuela

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Nouns that end in -o are usually masculine. Nouns that end in -a are usually feminine.

Notice the word usually! There are exceptions to these two rules and you will soon be learning them.

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One cannot predict the gender of a noun that stands for a non-living thing. Try to predict whether the Spanish words for the following things are masculine or feminine:

Masculine or feminine?

• book
  house
  money
  window
  

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One cannot predict the gender of a noun, except in the case of living creatures. Do not try to analyze the nature of the object, looking for some inherent masculinity or femininity. It won't work!

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Take a guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "dress" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be feminine, since a dress is an article of clothing worn by females. Actually, the word for "dress" is a masculine word:

• el vestido

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Take another guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "necktie" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be masculine, since a necktie is an article of clothing worn by males. Actually, the word for "necktie" is a feminine word:

• la corbata

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When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la). There are several reasons for this:

• Because you cannot predict the gender of most nouns.
  
  
• Because not every noun that ends in -o is masculine, and not every noun that ends in -a is feminine.
  
  
• Because many nouns end in letters other than o or a.
  
  
• Because the definite article (el, la) is your clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.