BSHM: LANGUAGE 1 (SPANISH)

TOPIC #2: Nouns

What is a noun?
A noun is a ‘naming’ word for a living being, thing or idea, for
example, woman, desk, happiness, Andrew.

In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. This is called their gender.

Even words for things have a gender.
 Whenever you are using a noun, you need to know whether it is masculine or
feminine as this affects the form of other words used with it, such as:
 adjectives that describe it
 articles (such as el or una) that go before it
 You can find information about gender by looking the word up in a dictionary.
When you come across a new noun, always learn the word for the or a that
goes with it to help you remember its gender.
 el or un before a noun usually tells you it is masculine
 la or una before a noun tells you it is feminine
 We refer to something as singular when we are talking about just one of them,
and as plural when we are talking about more than one. The singular is the
form of the noun you will usually find when you look a noun up in the
dictionary. As in English, nouns in Spanish change their form in the plural.
 Adjectives, articles and pronouns are also affected by whether a noun is
singular or plural.

Gender

1   Nouns referring to people

 Most nouns referring to men and boys are masculine.
el hombre the man

el rey the king

 Most nouns referring to women and girls are feminine.
la mujer the woman

la reina the queen

 When the same word is used to refer to either men/boys or women/girls, its
gender usually changes depending on the sex of the person it refers to.
el estudiante the (male) student

la estudiante the (female) student

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 el belga the Belgian (man)

la belga the Belgian

(woman)
Grammar Extra!Some words for people have only one possible gender, whether
they refer to a male or a female.
la persona the (male or female)
person

la víctima the (male or female) victim

 In English, we can sometimes make a word masculine or feminine by changing
the ending, for example, Englishman and Englishwoman or prince and princess.
In Spanish, very often the ending of a noun changes depending on whether it
refers to a man or a woman.
el camarero the waiter

la camarera the waitress

el emplead the employee (male)

o

la empleada the employee (female)

el inglés the Englishman

la inglesa the Englishwoman

TipNote that a noun ending in -o is usually masculine, and a noun ending in -a is
usually feminine.
 For more information on Masculine and feminine forms of words, see Nouns.

2   Nouns referring to animals

 In English we can choose between words like bull or cow, depending on the sex
of the animal. In Spanish too there are sometimes separate words for male and
female animals.
el toro the bull

la vaca the cow

 Sometimes, the same word with different endings is used for male and female
animals.
el perro the (male) dog

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 la perra the (female) dog, bitch

el gato the (male) cat

la gata the (female) cat

TipWhen you do not know or care what sex the animal is, you can usually use
the masculine form as a general word.
 Words for other animals don’t change according to the sex of the animal. Just
learn the Spanish word with its gender, which is always the same.
el sapo the toad

el hámster the hamster

la cobaya the guinea pig

la tortuga the tortoise

3   Nouns referring to things

 In English, we call all things – for example, table, car, book, apple – ‘it’. In
Spanish, however, things are either masculine or feminine. As things don’t
divide into sexes the way humans and animals do, there are no physical clues
to help you with their gender in Spanish. Try to learn the gender as you learn
the word.
 There are lots of rules to help you. Certain endings are usually found on
masculine nouns, while other endings are usually found on feminine nouns.
 The following ending is usually found on masculine nouns.

Masculine Examples
ending

-o el libro the book
el periódico the newspaper
BUT:
la mano the hand
la foto the photo
la moto the motorbike
la radio the radio (although in parts of Latin America, it
isel radio)
 The following types of word are also masculine.
 names of the days of the week and the months of the year
Te I’ll see you on Monday.
veré el lunes.
 the names of languages

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 el inglés English

el español Spanish

Estudio el español I’m studying Spanish.

.
 the names of rivers, mountains and seas
el Ebro the Ebro

el Everest Everest

el - the Atlantic

Atlántico
 The following endings are usually found on feminine nouns.
Feminine Examples
ending

-a la casa the house
la cara the face
BUT:
el día the day
el mapa the map
el planeta the planet
el tranvía the tram
and many words ending in -ma (el problema the
problem, elprograma the programme, el sistema the
system, el clima the climate)

-ción  la lección the lesson

-sión la estación the station
la expresión the expression

-dad la ciudad the city

-tad la libertad freedom
-tud la multitud the crowd
Grammar Extra!Some words have different meanings depending on whether
they are masculine or feminine.
Masculin Meaning Feminine Meaning
e

el capital the capital la capital the capital

(meaning money) (meaning city)

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 el cometa the comet lacometa the kite

el cura the priest la cura the cure

el guía the guide (man) la guía the guidebook; the

guide (woman)
 
Invirtieron mucho They invested a lot of capital.
capital.

Viven en la capital. They live in the capital.

4   Masculine and feminine forms of words

 Like English, Spanish sometimes has very different words for males and
females.
el hombre the man

la mujer the woman

el rey the king

la reina the queen

 Many Spanish words can be used to talk about men or women simply by
changing the ending. For example, if the word for the male ends in -o, you can
almost always make it feminine by changing the -o to -a.
el amigo the (male) friend

la amiga the (female) friend

el hermano the brother

la hermana the sister

el emplead the (male) employee

o

la empleada the (female) employee

el viudo the widower

la viuda the widow

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 Note that some words referring to people end in -a in the masculine as well as in
the feminine. Only the article (el or la, un or una) can tell you what gender the
noun is.
el dentista the (male) dentist

la dentista the (female) dentist

el deportist the sportsman

a

la deportist the sportswoman

a
 Many masculine nouns ending in a consonant (any letter other than a vowel)
become feminine by adding an -a.
el español the Spanish man

la española the Spanish woman

el profesor the (male) teacher

la profesora the (female) teacher

TipIf the last vowel of the masculine word has an accent, this is dropped in the
feminine form.
un inglés an Englishman

una inglesa an Englishwoman

un francés a Frenchman

una francesa a Frenchwoman
 For more information about Spelling and Stress, see Spelling and Stress.
Key points
 The ending of a Spanish word often helps you work out its gender: for instance,
if a word ends in -o, it is probably masculine; if it ends in -a, it is probably
feminine.
 These endings generally mean that the noun is feminine: -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, -
tud
 Days of the week and months of the year are masculine. So are languages,
mountains and seas.
 You can change the ending of some nouns from -o to -a to make a masculine
noun feminine.

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Forming plurals1: Plurals ending in -s and -es2: Spelling changes with plurals
ending in -es3: Plural versus singular