"Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions." If you look at texts 30 years ago you would never find LA arquitectA, it would have been LA arquitectO. In Spanish nationalities are expressed through origin adjectives (known as gentilicios in Spanish). The Masculine and feminine 2 Whack-a-mole. For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . Spanish gender can be a challenging topic for many new and advanced learners. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". In addition to these anomalies, there are other Spanish gender exceptions that you must keep in mind. These are some of the nouns whose endings cannot change. Please check your email and click the link to confirm your subscription - gracias! For that reason, this guide covers all the information you need to understand this topic. Copyright (c) Minerva Webworks LLC All Rights Reserved. But that is also the beauty of a language, and the fact that it is alive and evolving is one of the elements that I find personally interesting. La pared est recin pintada. This means that most Spanish adjectives will change their gender to match the noun. 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). The balcony is very big. 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. 33 chapters | Despite the many exceptions noted above, a great majority of Spanish words that end in-a are feminine. The truth can be painful. El periodista trabaja todo el da. However, the gender in Spanish language can be really tricky sometimes. (general) a. vacation (United States) Me urge una vacacin! Then little by little you will learn the others. Forms of feminine and masculine nouns. Nouns in Spanish can be either feminine or masculine, and this distinction can often seem illogical to people who don't speak Spanish. Check these examples of sentences with colors in Spanish: El rosa es mi color preferido. Its the persons gender that will determine whether we use el or la. These adjectives are derived from the name of that place. My kitty is sick. This is the only noun ending that does not have a guideline gender classification. Take Note: You can also imply the gender of these nouns by saying the name of the person youre talking about. 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. Dictionaries always indicate the grammatical gender of a noun! In those cases, if we want to specify the sex, we need to add macho (male) or hembra (female): Finally, a word can change its meaning according to its ending. Collins Complete Spanish Electronic Dictionary HarperCollins Publishers 2011. La serpiente - the serpent. They wish that they were in love now. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Uruguay es muy bonito. And its true that theres no logical way to divide the world into masculine and feminine. There are some words that end with -o, -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS that are feminine. Maybe you could make up your own! I desperately need a vacation! Conseiller(re) aux ventes Corbeil lectromnager recherche une personne qui aime offrir aux clients une exprience de magasinage remarquable et qui a un bon sens de l'analyse des besoins. 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). Theres a cold front in the city. It is usually at the end of words that describe people, like artista (artist) and realista (realist). However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. Encarga doscientas galletas.Order two hundred cookies. Regardless of the rules we stated above, if the word is referring to an animal or a person, then the article must correspond to the gender of the animal or person. All the Spanish nouns ending in cin, -sin, -tad, -tud, -dad or umbre are feminine: There are some Spanish nouns that have the same form for both masculine and feminine. Dont be shy and post a message! Lucia has very nice qualities. Yet if you are referring to a person or occupation this is what happens: EL espa = The spy (if the spy is a man) LA espa = The spy (if the spy is a woman. 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). Well start with the most obvious, which is that most words that end in o are going to be masculine. 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. El nino y el gato. Well break it down into three basic groups. The waitress doesnt work on Thursday. Even though Spanish is a language of exceptions, there are a few guidelines that can help when wanting to determine if a noun is feminine or masculine. You are too stressed out; you should go on holiday. (general) a. pasar las vacaciones (United States) 3. La mano (hand) is feminine, but el pie (foot) is masculine. Be aware that these guidelines are not set in stone, and there are some exceptions that youll need to memorize. Sometimes we have a different word for each sex: Just the same as what happens with people, sometimes we have different words for each sex: Many words have an only form, masculine or feminine: El tiburn, el cocodrilo, el dinosaurio, el pulpo, etc. Copyright 2006 Harrap Publishers Limited. Join the Tell Me In Spanish community and get a copy of my step-by-step Spanish Learners Roadmaps and tricky synonyms & vocab cheat sheets. Idioms with the word back, Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023. Benoit Hamon, CEO de SINGA, est venu sur Komune pour donner des faits face aux ides 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. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldn't trust them fully. So how come it's "el problema" and not "la problema" since "el" should always modify a masculine noun and "la" a feminine noun. . Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. La parte - the part. Reading comprehension. The dentists are very young. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldnt trust them fully. So, if you put a . For living things (such as people and animals), the grammatical gender is associated with the biological gender: El perro de Luis es blanco. Este semestre est bien pesado.I desperately need a vacation! Thinking of them together might help you remember their correct gender. Yet if you are referring to a person or occupation this is what happens: LA espa = The spy (if the spy is a woman. Since it can be challenging to conjugate, well Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. The adjective for Brasil is brasileo. When talking about people, animals and occupations things get a bit blurry. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. Nouns ending in o are usually masculine, and nouns ending in a are usually feminine. You may have come across this strange exception before where the masculine article el is used for a feminine word. Yes, when speaking to someone you are familiar with it is t and the verb will end with an 's' such as t quieres. With these types of nouns, you still have to mark the gender. You will get new updates by email, as well as a copy of my ebook, the Definitive Guide to Learn Conjugations in Spanish. A student learns how to identify gender in Spanish. Usted is used to speak in a more professional manner. el gato male cat Grammatical gender is a property of Spanish nouns. The Amazon River is the worlds largest river. 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. As you might have guessed, all of the tricks were going to cover use word Although its not really incorrect to use the feminine form, its less common. Masculine forms. Todava me quedan das de vacaciones antes de que termine el ao. 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. Youre more likely to hearel gato when someone is talking about a generic cat, for example. Your neighbor is very noisy. An exception is nene (colloquial term for little kid): el nene -> la nena. This free website is created with love and a great deal of work. So, you would have to establish if that friend is a male or a female to determine which article to use. The word for 'the' or 'a' changes depending on the gender of the noun and whether it is singular or plural. El ao que viene voy a tomarme unas vacaciones en Europa. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. It's time to Get to Grips with Spanish. Here we will explain the rules, and then the 3 categories of exceptions: Below are a number of words you would think should be la according to the rules above, but they are el, as they are exceptions to the el/la rules. The man sneezed.). The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. Tu vecina es muy ruidosa. Everything weve ever written about Spanish, all in one place. This rule is only applicable to the following numbers: Tengo doscientos pesos. One of the biggest exceptions to the LONERS rule we talked about for masculine nouns above is-in. On the other hand, when working as nouns, Spanish colors are always masculine. El mecnico trabaja todos los das. Me gusta la vestido rosa. This can be confusing, especially when some words, like persona (person), can refer to a person that is man or a woman. If you have studied Spanish, you are painfully aware of this. La verdad puede ser dolorosa. Your email address will not be published. La botella de Suzy est vaca. Quiero un caf, por favor. Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. Here, well go through some of the most common giveaways that a word is masculine or feminine, as well as the cases when Spanish grammatical gender can switch for a single word. The electric scooter is very practical. Subscribe to the Lawless Spanish newsletter, New lessons and features in your inbox every Thursday. Even though these endings can generally help you with the gender of a noun, there are some words that do not follow these rules. Qu bonito est tu labial! Tengo una pluma extra. Create an account to start this course today. During the day Im a freelancer and online marketer, while at night Im here writing for students of the world wide web looking to learn Spanish. Nuestro coche est sucio. trabajador (feminine trabajadora, masculine plural trabajadores, feminine plural trabajadoras) hard-working Synonyms: currante, trabajante; Noun . First of all, what is a noun? Spanish nouns have a gender, which is either feminine (like la mujer or la luna) or masculine (like el hombre or el sol). Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. You know that people and animals are masculine or feminine, but did you know that nouns in Spanish have gender? One warning, though: the S in LONERS refers to nouns that are singular, like el mes. Esa cantante es muy talentosa. Also, in plural they keep the feminine definite article (las), because the S avoids the cacophony: las aguas. "Water" in Spanish is not masculine. I've still got some vacation time left before the end of the year. I have an extra pen. This name is also derived from the Hebrew name Yitzhak which means ' one who rejoices.'. https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/ (accessed var d = (new Date()).toString().split(' ').splice(1,3).join(' '); (university) (United Kingdom) a. la vacaciones (F) to take a vacation tomarse unas vacaciones intransitive verb 2. Ese rbol es muy viejo. A noun is a word used to denominate a person, thing, place or concept. Got all that? These key rules will make it easier for you! The general rule is that Spanish nouns that end in -a are feminine. (Administration) vacancy vacances plural feminine noun holidays pluriel (Brit) holiday (Brit) vacation (USA) les grandes vacances the summer holidays (Brit) the summer vacation (USA) prendre des vacances to take a holiday (Brit) to take a vacation (USA) prendre ses vacances to take one's holidays (Brit) to take one's vacation (USA) All rights reserved. And it gets easier with time and practice. Because all the nouns that end with -in are feminine words in Spanish. Janet Long has taught post-secondary Spanish and English for over 15 years. If you happen to have an excellent grasp on etymology, youll have a leg up! Also see my lesson on the stressed A, which causes feminine nouns to take the masculine article. 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. With these nouns in singular, the indefinite article (un/una) is masculine, too: un aula, un guila, etc. When you first start learning Spanish, grammatical gender can seem arbitrary and confusing. Soccer is very boring. Our dogs are small. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). 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. You will notice that when adjectives modify such words, they are feminine: El agua est fra o tibia? Do you have any QUESTION or comment about Spanish language? They went to Europe on vacation. The adjective for Italia is italiano. Why? is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. Tom la decisin equivocada. Memorizing just the exceptions will be a lot easier than memorizing every single word in the Spanish language. As a romance language, Spanish has grammatical gender whose purpose is to express whether a noun is masculine or feminine. However, the word persona is always a feminine word. In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. My parents spent the Easter holidays in Argentina. The Masculine and feminine 1 Whack-a-mole. Otherwise, it would sound like laaagua. Animals With Irregular Masculine And Feminine Forms. And with -(a)tra, especially in the medical field: el/la foniatra, el/la pediatra, el/la obstetra. Singapore is very expensive. 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. I like the red bag more. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. The words doctorA, arquitectA, are relatively new, this is why we cant craft a perfect rule. When using adjectives to describe a person, use the gender that the person identifies with. Your email address will not be published. Instead of learning: libro = book, try committing to memory: EL libro = The book. Youll find a few Spanish singular feminine words that end with -a that are preceded by a masculine article. 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. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. El vestidor est ocupado. Nouns that end with -ma, -pa, -ta, or any of the letters in the word LONERS are usually 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. In those cases, you can always look it up on a dictionary, such as the Diccionario de la Lengua Espaola. 0 && stateHdr.searchDesk ? Most Spanish adjectives must agree in gender and number with the accompanying noun. Words ending in -o are generally masculine, while ones ending in -a are generally feminine . Most adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. The same goes for some words that end in -o that are actually feminine: la mano, la radio, la foto, etc. Fluenz Fluenz Blog Learn Spanish Basic Spanish El or La? (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! Both are fem. I like the pink dress. If you liked this post, you can share it with someone else who might find it helpful! Most adjectives in Spanish can be either feminine or masculine depending on the genre of the accompanying noun. Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below - Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). This couch is very comfortable. 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. I have two hundred pesos. Lingua Linkup, May. La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. As a result, depending on the noun, a number can be either feminine or masculine. Un - unos. Do you want to practice your Spanish? -Tud, like in the word actitud (attitude) is also a common ending for feminine nouns. The light is quite bright. Most nouns that end in "a" are feminine nouns. My cousin is also smart. Learn all about the Spanish gender roles below Feminine (la) vs Masculine (el). One ending with a final -a, -ista, can be used on words for male or female people, and is both masculine and feminine. 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. El ni o - the male child / la ni a - the female child. These apples are very sour. La foto, can actually shed some light into one of the rules for feminine words. In plain English, this book explains the Masculine & Feminine elements of Spanish, plus the rules around Singular & Plural. Generally, if the masculine form ends with an -o, to form the feminine you just need to replace it with an -a: If the masculine form ends witn a consonant, to form the feminine we just add an -a: They usually have the same form for masculine and feminine: el/la estudiante, el/la cantante, el/la agente, el/la paciente, etc. The use of the masculine gender includes the feminine and is used only to facilitate the reading. Nouns ending in -cin, -sin, -dad, -tad and -tud are feminine: la cancin, relacin, la televisin, la expresin, la ciudad, la verdad, la libertad, la amistad, la solicitud, la juventud, etc. Take the Spanish words for "colour" and "tooth": el color, el diente. You cant apply it to plural nouns or that would mean that every word would be masculine. And because it is an occupation, we said that those that end in -a, tend to stay the same. Why? Is vacation feminine or masculine in Spanish? Control of polling in presence of vacations in heavy traffic with applications to satellite and mobile radio systems. [Determiner] + [noun] + [verb conjugated] + [adjective]. tony bloom starlizard. A few of the most common ones are: Any words that are actually a shorter form of a longer word. 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. Not knowing if a word is feminine or masculine in Spanish can lead to poor communication and, in some cases, misunderstandings. Unlike the masculine, theres no fun acronym for feminine nouns. -A, -in, -dad, -tad and -tud are all endings for feminine words. The same thing in the other direction the rules say it should be el, but the word is actually la. Words ending in -ismo are simply the Spanish counterparts to the English isms because they share the same Latin root. As explained before, a big portion of masculine words in Spanish end with an -o. We say EL agua frA (The cold water). Cardinal directions are masculine, too: el norte, el sur, el este, el oeste. Los delfines son adorables. Unfortunately, there are not as many rules to know whether a noun in Spanish is masculine. vacacion is more commonly used in plural than in singular. Be one of them! (f) means that a noun is feminine. What gender is the sea in your mind? But really, the LONERS rule will work for you almost every time. You can use the word that best fits a noun to determine if it's masculine or feminine. For these nouns, all you have to do is change the definite article to reflect whether the person in question is male or female. NEWMAGICFOR THE NEWAGE Daring to challenge old stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding magical practice, New Millenni. And to make things more interesting, the fact is that with time, languages evolve and change. Nouns with other endings, such as other consonants, usually need to be memorized. While most nouns refer to objects and concepts that dont have gender, there are also the nouns that do. Spanish Language Dictations Level Beginner #001. Helpful, right? (Check out this link to learn how to use articles in Spanish). That being said, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. 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. L'immigration est + masculine que fminine : INFO ou INFOX ? With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". La torre - the tower. Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. 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." Ese color es bonito. El patn elctrico es muy prctico. The kids play in the park. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine. Fast, easy, reliable language certification, 35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans. But since doctor refers to a person and an occupation, its the gender of the doctor that will determine the article and ending. is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. Just think of the Spanish word for problem: el problema! La noche - the night. The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. Spanish speakers always like to have vacations in plural. Make sure you pay attention to the exceptions column. Feminine: (a, cin, dad) La chica- the girl.