Are there rules to know if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish?
Yes, there are partial rules.
In this article on Spanish grammar we are going to explain the most important rules as we explain them in our classes at CELA Spanish School.
At CELA we base our explanations and exercises on the real difficulties of Spanish students. We have been making it easy or difficult since 1997.
In Spanish, nouns and adjectives change gender and number. Here we will talk only about gender. We have 2 genders: masculine and feminine.
In general, we can say that words ending in -a are almost always feminine.
For example:
La montaña, la bicicleta, la cafetería, la tecnología, la fruta
Exceptions: some words that come from Greek end in a but are masculine.
For example:
El mapa, el problema, el sistema, el tema, el programa (all words ending in -grama), el idioma, el dogma, etc.
Words ending in -o are mostly masculine.
For example:
El trabajo, el campo, el vaso, el plano, el abrigo, el plato, etc.
Exceptions:
La mano
La foto and la moto are feminine because they are a short version of the words la fotografía and la motocicleta.
For words ending in other vowels such as e, i and u, and those ending in a consonant there are no rules but certain patterns:
Many words ending in e are masculine:
For example: el tomate, el elefante, el mueble, el viaje, el chocolate, etc.
But there are also many feminine ones:
La suerte, la llave, la clave, la carne, la parte, la noche, etc.
Many words ending in i and u are masculine:
El menú, el tabú, el champú, el maní,
Words ending in a consonant can be both masculine and feminine:
El gel, la sal, el sol, el alcohol, el árbol, la miel, el pastel, etc.
El manjar, el solar, el amanecer, el sabor, la flor, el amor, etc.
El internet, la red, la salud, el mamut, etc.
El pez, la nuez, la nariz, el maíz, el tapiz, la lombriz, la luz, etc.
This is why it is very important to always write down the nouns in the vocabulary list with their article to reinforce the gender information.
Attention:
Words ending in -ista are the same for masculine and feminine: el turista and la turista, el artista and la artista, el dentista and la dentista, etc.
The gender of the person also specifies the gender of the word. For example: la mujer and el hombre.
Very important: Words ending in cion, sion, tad, dad and tud are always feminine.
La canción, la emoción, la tensión, la libertad, la verdad, la actividad, la soledad, la juventud, la actitud, etc.
Adjectives change gender according to the gender of the person to whom they refer, if they are adjectives that originally end in o:
El tío gordo, la tía gorda.
Luis está solo en casa y María está sola también.
Some adjectives ending in r have a feminine version:
Mi padre es muy trabajador. Luisa es muy trabajadora.
However, mayor and menor do not change:
Mi hermano mayor.
Mi hermana mayor.
Mi hijo menor.
Mi hija menor.
When the adjective refers to two nouns of different gender, the masculine prevails:
For example:
Mi tía y mi padre son ricos
Words with double gender: Some Spanish words admit both genders, for example: el or la sartén, el or la azúcar, el or la mar, el or la calor, el/la vodka, el/la internet, el/la lente, and some others.
Words that begin with a tonic a: In these words the intonation of the word falls on the a with which the word begins that is why the masculine specific article el is used if the word is in the singular.
For example:
El agua
However, it is a feminine word, the adjective is always feminine:
El agua clara.
Hay que beber mucha agua.
The plural is feminine: las aguas.
Other words with this characteristic are, for example: el águila, el alma, el aula, el arma, el ama de casa, etc.
We can conclude that there are quite a few rules that will help you to know the correct gender of a word in Spanish. However, we recommend that you always write down the words with the corresponding article in your word list to reinforce the gender information.
Practice:
Exercise:
As always, we are going to do some practice. According to what we have explained in this lesson, which article corresponds to which word: El or la?
After the exercise are the solutions:
¿El o la?
Example: La palabra
- ____ canción
- ____ viaje
- ____ trabajo
- ____ juventud
- ____ red
- ____ televisión
- ____ miel
- ____ carne
- ____ solicitud
- ____ parte
- ____ flor
- ___ sabor
- ___ nariz
- ___ foto
- ___ agua
- ___ emoción
- ___ soledad
- ___ salud
- ___ nariz
- ___ chocolate
Solution:
- la canción
- el viaje
- el trabajo
- la juventud
- la red
- la televisión
- la miel
- la carne
- la solicitud
- la parte
- la flor
- el sabor
- la nariz
- la foto
- el agua
- la emoción
- la soledad
- la salud
- la nariz
- el chocolate
We hope you found the explanation useful. Nos vemos en una próxima clase.
Want to know more?
About the author: Sabine Loffler has a degree in Literature from UCV in Venezuela, a PhD in Hispanic Philology from UNED in Spain, a Specialist in Distance and Adult Education from UNED, has been teaching Spanish since 1992, is the founder of CELA Spanish School and is a Spanish teacher trainer.
Here you will find the link to the Video Lesson about the gender of the word in Spanish in our Youtube Channel: el or la?
You don´t remember the basic grammar terms and want to review them? In this link you have an article on the subject: Spanish Grammar Terms
Do you have more questions about Spanish grammar? Click here for more articles. Spanish Grammar FAQs
Would you like to work with a structured online Spanish course with teacher assistance? Click on this link to find information about our courses. Online Spanish courses
Contact: you can reach us at contact@cela-ve.com or cela@posteo.de
CELA Spanish School
Centro de Lingüística Aplicada
Online Spanish courses
Isla Margarita
Venezuela