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Spanish nouns

A noun is a word used to identify people, animals, places, things, or ideas. Unlike English, all Spanish nouns, even those that refer to non-living things, have gender; that is, they are considered either masculine or feminine. As in English, nouns in Spanish also have number, meaning that they are either singular or plural.

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As shown above, nouns that refer �to males, like el hombre, are �generally masculine, while nouns �that refer to females, like la mujer, �are generally feminine.

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Many nouns that refer to male beings end in –o or �–or. Their corresponding feminine forms end in –a and –ora, respectively.

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The masculine and feminine forms of �nouns that end in –ista, like turista, are �the same, so gender is indicated by the �article el (masculine) or la (feminine). Some other nouns have identical masculine and feminine forms.

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Certain noun endings are strongly associated with a specific gender, so you can use them to determine if a noun is masculine or feminine.

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Because the gender of nouns that refer to non-living things cannot be determined by foolproof rules, you should memorize the gender of each noun you learn. It is helpful to memorize each noun with its corresponding article, el for masculine and la for feminine.

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Another reason to memorize the gender of every noun is that there are common exceptions to the rules of gender. For example, el mapa (map) and el día (day) end in –a, but are masculine. La mano (hand) ends in –o, but is feminine.

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Plural of nouns

In Spanish, nouns that end in a vowel form the plural by adding –s. Nouns that end in a consonant add –es. Nouns that end in –z change the –z to –c, then add –es.

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In general, when a singular noun has an accent mark on the last syllable, the accent is dropped from the plural form.

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Use the masculine plural form to refer to a group that includes both males and females.

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Spanish articles

As you know, English often uses definite articles (the) and indefinite articles �(a, an) before nouns. Spanish also has definite and indefinite articles. Unlike English, Spanish articles vary in form because they agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.

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Definite articles

Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to the English definite article the. You use definite articles to refer to specific nouns.

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Indefinite articles

Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to the English indefinite article, which according to context may mean a, an, or some. You use indefinite articles to refer to unspecified persons or things.

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Provide a definite article for each noun in the first column and an indefinite article for each noun in the second column. The first item has been done for you.

_____ autobús
_____ escuelas
_____ computadora
_____ hombres
_____ señora
_____ lápices

_____ chica
_____ chico
_____ maleta
_____ cuadernos
_____ lápiz
_____ mujeres

la

un

¿el, la, los o las?

¿un, una, unos o unas?