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Nouns
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Nouns

Overview

Unlike English, Spanish nouns and adjectives have gender and number. That is, (1) they are either masculine or feminine and (2) they have singular and plural forms.

Gender

The gender of nouns is often apparent either by the meaning of the word or its form. Words that relate specifically to men and women are sometimes masculine and feminine, respectively.

el hombre (man) — masculine

la mujer (woman) — feminine

Although there is a great deal of randomness in the gender of many nouns, many of their genders are reasonably predictable by their spelling.

Many feminine nouns end with the vowel -a:

  • la culebra
  • la fuerza
  • la economía
  • la cama

But, words that end in -ma are often masculine:

  • el problema
  • el programa

Other feminine endings include -dad and -ción:

  • la hermandad
  • la ciudad
  • la acción
  • la canción

Masculine nouns normally end with the vowel -o:

  • el cuaderno
  • el caballo
  • el trigo
  • el socorro

Other masculine nouns that end in -dor and -aje are masculine as well:

  • el comedor
  • el cazador
  • el garaje
  • el equipaje

Some nouns are either masculine or feminine, depending on the sex of the person to whom the word refers. Some examples, most ending in -ista, are:

  • el artista - (male) artist / la artista - (female) artist
  • el dentista - (male) dentist / la dentista - (female) dentist
  • el poeta - (male) poet / la poeta - (female) poet

Nouns and Adjectives: Formation of the plural

The rules for the pluralization of nouns and adjectives are identical.

A. Nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel (a, e, i, o, or u) simply add an -s to pluralize the word:

  • la casa > las casas
  • grande > grandes

B. Nouns and adjectives ending in a consonant (any letter other than the vowels listed above) add -es to the singular form:

  • la ciudad > las ciudades
  • reloj > relojes

C. Certain words change their spelling slightly when pluralized (word final -z > -ces):

  • andaluz, andaluces
  • fugaz, fugaces

D. Words that end with a stressed syllable bearing a written accent mark lose the accent mark:

  • lección > lecciones
  • alemán > alemanes

See also

Definite articles
Indefinite articles
Word stress