Nouns and articles
Gender and number of nouns
All nouns in Spanish have a gender: masculine or feminine. Except in the case of people or animals, linguistic gender is a convention of language, not a property of the noun. For this reason, you won’t be able to guess the gender of a noun based on the object itself; you need to learn the gender along with the noun. However, there are some rules that can help you guess the gender of an unknown word:
1. Objects/Things:
The definite article meaning “the” is la for feminine singular nouns.
- Most words ending in –a are feminine
la ventana la silla
- All words ending in -sión, -ción, -tad, -dad are feminine
la televisión
la educación
la dificultad
la universidad
The definite article meaning “the” is el for masculine singular nouns. Notice that el without the accent mark is the article… what does él mean? That’s right, it means “he”. These are two different words.
- Most words ending in –o are masculine
el escritorio
el libro
el teléfono
el cuaderno
- Many but not all words ending in –ma are masculine (the ones that originate from Greek are masculine)
el problema el idioma
- Many nouns end in –e. While statistically more are masculine than feminine, there is no firm rule for these, so it’s important to memorize their gender when learning their meaning
la clase el coche
- Nouns that end in a consonant don’t reveal their gender
el lápiz
el reloj
la luz
la pared
- It’s important to keep in mind that there are also some exceptions to the above patterns
el día el mapa
2. People:
- Words that describe people take the gender of the person they refer to. However, as society has become more aware of questions of gender identity, people have begun experimenting with ways to adjust the traditional binary-gendered structure of the Spanish language. Feel free to explore some of the experiments in gender-neutral language that Spanish speakers have been developing.
- Some nouns for people will be identical except for the -o or -a ending.
el muchacho (boy) la muchacha (girl)
el niño (male child) la niña (female child)
el compañero de clase (male classmate) la compañera de clase (female classmate)
el amigo (male friend) la amiga (female friend)
- However, other nouns are completely different for masculine and feminine forms.
el hombre (man) la mujer (woman)
- Some nouns for people are identical, and the gender is shown only in the definite article. Note: A large number of words that identify members of professions or groups end in -ista and only distinguish gender by the article; these words end in -ista even if masculine.
el estudiante (male student) la estudiante (female student)
el dentista (male dentist) la dentista (female dentist)
el optimista (male optimist) la optimista (female optimist)
How to make nouns plural
· To make a noun plural, just add “s” if it ends with a vowel, or -es if it ends with a consonant
libro – libros chica – chicas
marcador – marcadores reloj – relojes
· If a noun ends in -z, change the “z” to c and add –es
lápiz – lápices luz – luces
Articles
Definite articles (the) are used with specific nouns. They also tell us whether a noun is masculine or feminine AND singular or plural. They can be expressed in four ways:
· el – singular masculine
· los – plural masculine
(X) Es el libro de español. (X) Son los libros de español. Translation: It’s the Spanish book. They’re the Spanish books.
In Spanish, there isn’t an equivalent to the English subject pronoun it. Similarly, the Spanish subject pronouns ellos/ellas are only used to refer to people, not objects.
· la – singular feminine
· las – plural feminine
(Ella) es la profesora de español. (Ellas) son las profesoras de español. Translation. She’s the Spanish professor. They’re the Spanish professors.
Indefinite articles (a, an, some) are used with nouns that are not specific or have been mentioned. They also state whether a noun is masculine or feminine AND singular or plural. They can be expressed in four ways:
· un – singular masculine
· unos – plural masculine
· una – singular feminine
· unas – plural feminine
(X) Es un libro de español. (X) Son unos libros de español. Translation: It’s a Spanish book. They’re Spanish books.
The verb hay
Hay comes from the verb haber and it means “there is.” However, hay is the only form used in the present tense for both singular and plural descriptions, so it also means “there are.”
- Hay treinta estudiantes en la clase. (There are 30 students in the class.)
- Hay un reloj en la pared. (There is a clock on the wall.)
- Hay dos pizarras. (There are two whiteboards.)
- ¿Qué hay en tu mochila? (What is there in your backpack?)
- Note: Though in English you might say “What’s in your backpack?”, it would be incorrect to say “¿Qué es en tu mochila?” in Spanish.
Hay is never followed by definite articles (el, la, los, las), only by indefinite articles, numbers, or adjectives of quantity, or just nouns.
- Hay una hoja de papel en mi pupitre. (There is a sheet of paper on my desk.)
- Hay veinte estudiantes en la clase de español. (There are 20 students in the Spanish class.)
- Hay muchas chicas de España en la clase. (There are a lot of girls from Spain in the class.)
- Hay problemas con el Wifi. (There are problems with the Wifi.)
