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. It is basically just a sign of respect. Grammatical gender is a property of Spanish nouns. For example, to say, 'My brother is an interesting person' in Spanish, you would say Mi hermano es una persona interesante. Theres a cold front in the city. And to make things more interesting, the fact is that with time, languages evolve and change. I hope you find what youre looking for here during your journey into Espaol . While some of these exceptions just have to be memorized, you can scroll up and see that a lot of exceptions have their own rules in the-ta, -ma and-pasection. 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. One warning, though: the S in LONERS refers to nouns that are singular, like el mes. Nouns in Spanish can be either feminine or masculine, and this distinction can often seem illogical to people who don't speak Spanish. The Spanish letters "a" and "o" as the final letter of a word designate a feminine or masculine word; "a" is feminine and "o" is masculine. The truth can be painful. Everything weve ever written about Spanish, all in one place. Masculine nouns are used with articles like el or un and have adjectives that end in -o, while female nouns use the articles la or una and have adjectives that end in -a. La pared est recin pintada. trabajador m (plural trabajadores, feminine trabajadora, feminine plural trabajadoras) worker Synonyms: currante, obrero, trabajante; Derived terms However, things start getting tricky when determining the gender of objects and concepts. Men wish that they had been warriors, or are proud that they once were. We said words that end in -or are masculine. As a result, here are some frequently asked questions that most of my students usually have. If you are starting to learn Spanish, we only introduce the concept of gender differences a couple of sessions in. My horse is black and my mare brown. tony bloom starlizard. Spanish Survival Kit: Asking for Directions [2022]. 33 chapters | The Spanish gender can be distinguished with certain endings or by checking the gender of the adjectives, pronouns and Spanish articles surrounding that word. * This is the only word ending in -ua that takes a masculine article. El toro es muy agresivo y la vaca muy tranquila. I have two hundred pesos. " El nio es bonito y gordo ". As you might have guessed, all of the tricks were going to cover use word las vacaciones and la estaci'on. The idea here is that words that end in any of the letters L-O-N-E-R-S tend to be masculine. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. I've still got some vacation time left before the end of the year. Your email address will not be published. And because it is an occupation, we said that those . Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). If you happen to have an excellent grasp on etymology, youll have a leg up! endings to determine the gender of a word in Spanish. But, sometimes a word is a shorter forms of a longer word, like moto or radio. I hope this helps. The general rule is that Spanish nouns that end in -a are feminine. Because the gender of the noun changes the article or adjective that you can use with the noun. Im always glad to reach and help more people around the world. The dressing room is occupied. During the day Im a freelancer and marketer, while at night Im here writing for students of the world wide web looking to learn Spanish. Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. Colours in Spanish. We said all words ending in -a are feminine. A lot of them are identical or almost identical to words you already know in English! Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. thelanguagetutors Follow Advertisement Recommended Spanish Lesson - Lesson 3: Definite and Indefinite articles Swagatam Mitra 3.5k views 9 slides Now lets check out the tricks for masculine nouns in Spanish. Many students assume that confusing the gender of words in Spanish is not a big deal. Take Note: The gender of a noun in Spanish affects determiners, adjectives, and some pronouns. vacation translate: vacances [feminine, plural], vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacances, passer des. Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning. There are some rules to determine if a noun is masculine of feminine. The use of the masculine gender includes the feminine and is used only to facilitate the reading. Necesito un respiro de mi familia despus de la reunin. Yet it behaves like a feminine noun. Both are fem. For objects and concepts, Spanish gender is, The Spanish masculine gender can be used to talk about a, Most feminine words in Spanish end with , Singular feminine words that start with a, Certain nouns related to professions have fixed endings. Some of the exceptions occur because of how the words were treated in other languages, such as Latin and Greek. Words ending in -ed (if the stress falls on this syllable). They went to Europe on vacation. 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. I desperately need a vacation! Sus zapatos son muy caros. First of all, what is a noun? In Spanish nationalities are expressed through origin adjectives (known as gentilicios in Spanish). For that reason, in this guide, Ill provide you with all the key information you need to know to determine the gender of nouns in Spanish. In Spanish, the word "tea" is used for a wide variety of beverages from coffee to cold brew to water to iced tea to tea bags and more. Little by little, and loads of practice is the best remedy. Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. ). and an adjective (hungry, thirsty,. Exceptions: la mano, la radio, la moto, la foto. One of the first things youll find out when learning Spanish is that all nouns have a gender. Not bad, huh? The name is thought to have acquired this meaning as communities in the time of Sarah and Abraham thought it to be hysterical that they were to have a child at such an elderly age. All of these rules use the ending of a word as a trick to determine its gender. Can vacaciones be singular? The same goes for some words that end in -o that are actually feminine: la mano, la radio, la foto, etc. coming up later. Have you tried it yet? 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. Me encanta el salmn ahumado. To know if a noun is masculine or feminine, you should look to see what letter(s) the word ends with. Dictionaries always indicate the grammatical gender of a noun! And since we are here, this is one of my favorite songs in Spanish! As we mention in the masculine section, many words that end in-e are masculine. Lingua Linkup, May. Given that its key for your conversations and it can also help you practice this spelling change, in this guide, well learn the probar conjugation Hola! But be careful! It's a good place to start for beginners though! Masculine forms. 2. Get a Step-by-Step Map to Learning Spanish. This can be very confusing. by Kcastonguay. This restaurant is pretty famous. You cant apply it to plural nouns or that would mean that every word would be masculine. is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. 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. On the other hand, when working as nouns, Spanish colors are always masculine. Just think of the Spanish word for problem: el problema! In . The 27 Letters of the Spanish Alphabet [2022], Learn Basic Spanish: The First 10 Spanish Words You Need To Learn [2022]. Spanish also has four forms of the indefinite article that correspond to the words a/an and some/any in English. (general) a. pasar las vacaciones (United States) 3. The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. el day is masculine and is the ONLY exception. Why is it important to know if a noun is feminine or masculine? The gender of the word does not change even when the person it refers to is masculine. The articles which accompany a masculine noun are el (definite) / uno (indefinite), while the feminine ones are la (definite) / una (indefinite) . See answer (1) Copy. Descubr lo que tu empresa podra llegar a alcanzar. The endings are not so obvious. 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. Two examples are doctora (female doctor) and camisa (shirt). Nouns with other endings, such as other consonants, usually need to be memorized. However, the word persona is always a feminine word. The grammatical gender is an arbitrary classification that divides nouns into two types: masculines or feminines. Because of this, most people assume that vestido is feminine, only to find out that theyre wrong. Your neighbor is very noisy. Im going to list them one by one, and also I will teach you what the exceptions are if there are any. Tengo una pluma extra. From students and tourists to doctors and soldiers whove moved and visited here over the years. Here are two articles that help shed some light on the subject: Puzzle Solved: Why nouns in Spanish are feminine and masculine, The Ultimate Tip-Sheet to Articles in Spanish: (El vs. La, Un vs. Una), Your email address will not be published. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. For 15 years we've taught Spanish to hundreds of thousands of learners. 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. Youve probably heard this one before: words ending in -a are feminine and words ending in -o are masculine. In any case, if a word has any of the following endings you can be absolutely sure that it is masculine. What does the root Manus mean? After all, how can you know if problema and mano are feminine or masculine? Something like ZAD? Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. My students are already speaking Spanish and using it in their everyday lives. That being said, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. 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). Masculine Nouns Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. The last three of them are actually abbreviations of feminine compound words: la radiofona, la motocicleta, la fotografa. Its important to know the grammatical gender of a noun in Spanish because all of the elements referring to them (articles, adjectives, pronouns) will agree in grammatical gender, too: There are some rules that you can follow when it comes to identifying masculine and feminine in Spanish. Thinking of them together might help you remember their correct gender. Dialogues in Spanish - English on 123dialogues channel: https://www.youtube.com/123dialogues Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youstudyspanishBlog: http://y. NOTE: The masculine gender has been used for brevity and includes the feminine gender. Therefore, "red" is "rojo" but it becomes "roja" with a. Even if the nouns are in singular! 08, 2020, https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/, Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. Since it can be challenging to conjugate, well Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. You will need to memorize rule-breaking words like la mano (hand) and el d'ia (day). Why? Also, notice that there are masculine nouns that end in -l, -z, and -n. I would recommend you learn the following by heart. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. Common exceptions: not feminine, masculine El mapa- the map- masculine El da- the day- masculine. These key rules will make it easier for you! Although words that end in -a are usually feminine, we already know that the words with -ma at the end of them are masculine. Feminine forms. Los nios juegan en el parque. The Amazon River is the worlds largest river. (f) means that a noun is feminine. Tweet. . More examples: rea (el rea/las reas), aula (el aula/las aulas), guila (el guila/las guilas), etc. In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. La mano (hand) is feminine, but el pie (foot) is masculine. Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below - Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). That singer is very talented. Colors are ADJECTIVES. This attribute allows us to classify words as either masculine or feminine. Given that this may be a new concept for new learners, many people wonder what grammatical gender in Spanish is. Un - unos. This is a feminine word because it is a short form of the longer word, la motocicleta. With these rules below, youll know which to use with every word el or la. Therefore, vestido (dress) is actually a masculine noun. La mano- the hand- feminine. Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. The ending -a is a good indicator that youre most likely dealing with a feminine Spanish word. La serpiente - the serpent. As established before, a Spanish noun can be classified as masculine or feminine depending on its gender. The name Isaac means 'he will laugh.'. As you may already know, most masculine words in Spanish end with -o. Este semestre est bien pesado.I desperately need a vacation! Because aguas is plural in the second example, the s on the end of the article las breaks up the stressed a in aguas. 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 . The word espaol was supposedly imported from Provence by a medieval chronicler (it was originally introduced by pilgrims in Santiago) because there was no existing translation of the earlier Roman word Hispani when writing a chronicle of Spanish history, but this was the word Provenal speakers used to refer to the Christian kingdoms of what As mentioned above, this rule comes into effect with amounts superior to two hundred. Idioms with the word back, Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023. For these nouns, all you have to do is change the definite article to reflect whether the person in question is male or female. 1) For example, the days (el da), months (el mes), and years (el ao) are masculine; while letters of the alphabet (la letra) and the hours (la hora) of the day are feminine. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldn't trust them fully. One mnemonic device for learning masculine endings is LONERS. Hay un frente fro en la ciudad. Test yourself on the gender of Spanish nouns: Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless Spanish account to take these tests. (university) (United Kingdom) a. la vacaciones (F) to take a vacation tomarse unas vacaciones intransitive verb 2. The Masculine and feminine 2 Whack-a-mole. However, there are certain words whose endings are unalterable. His shoes are very expensive. This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones. If it is a female doctor it would be: LA doctorA (we said that only those occupations ending in -e never change endings, and most ending in -a never change the ending). For example: Subscribe for free weekly updates from this Spanish Language site. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). You can use the word that best fits a noun to determine if it's masculine or feminine. The Philippines (/ f l p i n z / (); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. 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." Please check your email and click the link to confirm your subscription - gracias! Fast, easy, reliable language certification, 35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans. 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. Este restaurante es muy famoso. Lesson outline 1. El ao que viene voy a tomarme unas vacaciones en Europa. Control of polling in presence of vacations in heavy traffic with applications to satellite and mobile radio systems. Other nouns that are always feminine are those words that end with -ad or -ed. Even though the brother is a man, the word persona is always feminine. Luca tiene cualidades muy buenas. 250 words that are the same in English and Spanish, Spanish words that are similar to English words, its not really incorrect to use the feminine form. Recuerdas aquella vez que estuvimos de vacaciones en Vermont? However, there are a few masculine nouns that end in -a. vacacion is more commonly used in plural than in singular. That said, we need to get something out of the way before diving into the rules for gender in Spanish. Mi padres pasaron las vacaciones de Semana Santa en Argentina. On your particular example of a dropdown menu with the names of languages, you don't have to worry because there is only one name for (the language) Spanish: espaol, masculine. Most animal names have a female and a male form, but not all do. Below youll find a list of words and be able to find out for yourself if it is masculine (el) or feminine (la). Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine. Youll find a few Spanish singular feminine words that end with -a that are preceded by a masculine article. (Check out this link to learn how to use articles in Spanish). However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. "Water" in Spanish is not masculine. Maybe you could make up your own! by Mgomezhernandez. Check these examples of sentences with colors in Spanish: El rosa es mi color preferido. But dont worry, were going to give you a framework to work with. 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. El patn elctrico es muy prctico. 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. Feminine: (a, cin, dad) La chica- the girl. The problem is that I dont have time. Singular and plural feminine & masculine maze Maze chase. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. (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! Boroditsky proposes that because the word for "bridge" in German die brucke is a feminine noun, and the word for "bridge" in Spanish el puente is a masculine noun, native speakers. Take Note: You can also imply the gender of these nouns by saying the name of the person youre talking about. La periodista es muy insistente. Cuntas clases faltan para las vacaciones? The user may also prefer cheaper vacations and may have desiderata or wishes such as visiting an attraction park in each stop. Spanish gender can be a challenging topic for many new and advanced learners. If you liked this post, you can share it with someone else who might find it helpful! Memorizing just the exceptions will be a lot easier than memorizing every single word in the Spanish language. La familia se fue de vacaciones a Mjico. 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. Professions also refer to people, but are kind of their own subset. The adjective for Brasil is brasileo. If you have the word for friend, it refers to a person correct? Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . FR8 En Ville - Location Sort - Masculine/Feminine Group sort. Distinguishing between gender is fairly straightforward - words ending in an 'a' are usually feminine, where those ending in 'e' are masculine. I am going to travel to Mexico during summer vacation. The opposite time of day, la noche (night), is feminine, so you can think of them as a pair. Now lets see how to know if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish when talking about people and animals. Create an account to start this course today. La sangre - the blood. The pink t-shirt is too big. They have a master's degrees in English from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Missouri Columbia. All rights reserved. Our car is dirty. In Italian (including all Italian dialects) and Portuguese, the sea is strictly masculine: il mare (Sicilian: u mari, Venetian: el mar, Neapolitan: 'o mare, Sardinian: su mari, Corsican: u mare) and o mar (the same for Galician); however in French and Romanian it is feminine: la mer and la mare. Most words that. These short words keep the gender of the longer word, even if they have -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS at the end. The journalist is very persistent. b. holiday (United Kingdom) Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones.You are too stressed out; you should go on holiday. Usted is used to speak in a more professional manner. In the following sections, well explore some of Spanishs most important rules for feminine and masculine nouns. As youll see in a moment, most words that end in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions. Talking about people, especially family members, often includes referring to gender. -A, -in, -dad, -tad and -tud are all endings for feminine words. The following words are feminine when plural, but when they are singular, these words are masculine: Another exception is that the el or la can change the context of the word: Online Spanish Tutors - Native Speakers. Its the same for words ending with -a: el/la espa, el/la polica, el/la gua. Why? Well the answer is just because . This discussion is especially alive with occupations. More often than not, the endings change according to the gender of the person or animal: Sometimes only the article changes. Here are the common endings for feminine words: The ending -a is usually feminine, just like -o is masculine. The general rule states that all Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine. (in summer) a. veranear Copyright 2006 Harrap Publishers Limited vacation noun 1 especially (Britain) (Jur) receso (m) vacacional (formal); periodo (m) vacacional Fluenz Fluenz Blog Learn Spanish Basic Spanish El or La? My kitty is sick. Whether its a good idea to split the world into two genders is a subject for a different article, but for now well go through the various kinds of nouns that switch genders.