A noun is a word
that represents a
thing, either
concrete (e.g., a chair, a dog) or abstract
(an idea, happiness).
In Spanish, all
nouns
have a
gender - they are either
masculine or
feminine. It is very important to learn a noun's
gender
along with the noun itself because
definite
articles,
indefinite
articles,
adjectives,
and
pronouns
have to
agree with
nouns; that is, they change depending on the
gender of the noun they
modify or replace.
The
gender of
some nouns makes sense
(
hombre [man] is masculine,
mujer [woman]
is feminine) but others don't
(
persona [person] is always feminine, even if the person
is a man!) The best way to learn the
gender of nouns is to make your
vocabulary
lists with the definite or indefinite article. That is:
a book = un libro (masculine)
a notebook = una libreta (feminine)
a flower = una flor
a mobile = un móvil
There are some tendencies in the gender
of nouns, but there are
always exceptions. I will list the patterns that I have noticed, but
please don't
use these as a way to avoid learning the genders of nouns - just learn
each word
as gender + noun and then you'll know them forever.
| This ending... |
is usually |
|
| -o |
masculine |
} |
Exceptions
|
| -a |
feminine |
| -ión |
feminine |
|
| -tad |
feminine |
|
