Nouns: Gender/Agreement

GenderIn this presentation, we will

look at two very important concepts in Spanish: Gender Agreement

Look at these English words and guess whether they refer to male or female:BullHenHusbandNieceCousinCalculatorMarshmallow

Gender

Some are obvious:Bull (m.)Hen (f.)Husband (m.)Niece (f.)

Others are unknown:Cousin (m. or f.)

While others are neither (“neuter”):Calculator, marshmallow

Gender

GenderIn English, nouns and

pronouns fall into three grammatical groups:Masculine: man, husband,

rooster, heFeminine: woman, wife, hen, sheNeuter: child, bird, it

In Spanish, all nouns fall into just two categories:Masculine (“masculino”)Feminine (“feminino”)

There is no “neuter” class in which to place nouns such as “table” and “chair.”

Gender

So what does this mean?

You should start thinking about Spanish nouns as being either masculine or feminine.

Let’s take a look!Here are some nouns

with their corresponding definite article (“the”):el niño (the boy)la niña (the girl)el profesor (the professor)la profesora (the professor)el amigo (the friend)la amiga (the friend)

Let’s reorganize these words.Put all of the “el” words together:

el niñoel profesorel amigo

And all the “la” words together:la niñala profesorala amiga

That’s easy!Masculine nouns use the

definite article “el” while feminine nouns use “la.”

Let’s look at a few more:La mesa (the table)El libro (the book)La pluma (the pen)El teléfono (the phone)

Just a minute!!Words that are neuter in English

are either masculine or feminine in Spanish.

This does not mean that these words have masculine or feminine characteristics! It is just a purely grammatical classification.

Let’s practice!Do you think these nouns are

masculine (“el”) or feminine (“la”)? Don’t worry about the meanings for now.___ hermano___ mamá___ trabajo___ historia___ planta___ taco

el hermanola mamáel trabajola historiala plantael tacoGenerally speaking, nouns that end in –o are masculine,

while those that end in –a are feminine. There are exceptions, but we will worry about them on a case-by-case basis.

How did you do?

Here are some different ones:

la ciudadla universidadla religiónla divisiónel actorel doctorel español

Do you see the pattern?

Not all Spanish nouns end in –o and –a, but they still must be either masculine or feminine.Nouns that end in –ión are usually

feminine.Nouns that end in –dad are always

feminine.Nouns that end in –l and –r are

usually masculine.

What about…?Nouns that end in –e can be

either masculine or feminine:la clase; el presidente

Some nouns can be both, depending on the meaning:el presidente (a man)la presidente (a woman)

Learn every Spanish noun with its article. It will pay off soon, because you will be able to classify new nouns as you see the patterns develop.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Look at these sentences:El niño es alto (tall).La niña es alta (tall).

Words that describe “niño” also end in –o: alto

Words that describe “niña” also end in –a: alta

Agreement

Other words in the sentence also change to “agree” (match the form of the noun they describe). Here’s another one:

Mi primo es generoso y creativo.How would you change this

sentence to talk about a cousin that is a girl?

Agreement

La prima es generosa, y creativa.

What if there is more than one cousin?

Agreement

Los primos son generosos, y creativos.

Los > “the” pluralPrimos > pluralSon > “are”Generosos, creativos > adjectives match the

ending of the nouns too.

Agreement

Let’s try one!Put the correct ending on each word.

La vaca es bonit__ y negr__.Las vacas son bonit__ y negr__.

Los carro es roj__ y fe__.Los carros son roj__ y fe__.

The envelope, please!

La vaca es bonita y negra.

El carro es rojo y feo.

Let’s try another!Now make these sentences plural!

Las vacas son bonit__ y negr__.

Los carros son roj__ y fe__.

Drum Roll, please!La vaca es bonita y negra.Las vacas son bonitas y negras.

El carro es rojo y feo.Los carros son rojos y feos.

Last one! You can do it!

How do you make this sentence plural?

El estudiante es inteligente.

How did you do?

El estudiante es inteligente.Los estudiantes son inteligentes.

That’s enough for now!

This is a very tricky concept in learning Spanish, mainly because it is so different from English.

Keep your eyes and ears open for gender and agreement, and soon the patterns will become clearer.