Spanish has traditionally used the masculine plural as a default to refer to mixed groups of males and females. Even if there are 999 females in a group and one male, masculine plural takes precedence. This is because, while the masculine plural form may refer just to males, down the centuries it has also been used to denote all the members in the category.
el estudiante the (male) student
la estudiante the (female) student
la estudiante the (female) student
los estudiantes the (male (and female)) students
las estudiantes the (female) students
el profesor the (male) teacher
la profesora the (female) teacher
los profesores the (male (and female)) teachers
las profesoras the (female) teachers
el empleado the (male) employee, member of staff
la empleada the (female) employee, member of staff
los empleados the (male (and female)) employees, (members of) staff
las empleadas the (female) employees, members of staff
el rey the king
la reina the queen
los reyes the king and queen, the kings and queens, the kings
mi padre my father
mi madre my mother
mis padres my parents
mi hermano my brother
mi hermana my sister
mis hermanos my brothers or my brother(s) and sister(s)
mis hermanas my sister
nosotros we,us (all males or mixed males and females)
nosotras we,us (all females)
todos all, everyone (males or mixed males and females)
todas all, everyone (all females)
This generic use of the masculine is an accident of grammar rather than a reference to sex, but these days, many speakers try to avoid the default masculine plural for mixed groups if they can by using a variety of strategies.
For example, instead of using a masculine plural word for a mixed-sex group, they mention the feminine explicitly too:
mi madre y mi padre my mother and my father (instead of mis padres)
mis hermanos y hermanas my brothers and sisters (instead of mis hermanos)
el rey y la reina the king and queen (instead of los reyes)
nosotras y nosotros or nosotros y nosotras we or us (instead of nosotros).
los chicos y las chicas or las chicas y los chicos the boys and the girls
las y los manifestantes or los y las manifestantes the demonstrators
¡Bienvenidos a todos y todas! Welcome, everyone! (instead of ¡Bienvenidos a todos!)
While this may be felt to be more inclusive of females, it can sound very repetitive if overused. The position of the Real Academia Española (the authority on the Spanish language in Spain) is that itis only grammatically justified when there is a need to contrast males and females; otherwise it may be contrived and unnecessary from a linguistic point of view.
A gender-neutral strategy employed by some speakers is where possible to choose words and expressions that can’t be said to reveal anything about the gender of the people concerned. There are many nouns, adjectives and expressions that don’t vary according to gender which can help with this:
Había un montón de estudiantes en la plaza. There were loads of students in the square.
El ayuntamiento cerró cuando grandes cantidades de manifestantes intentaron entrar. The town hall closed when large numbers of demonstrators tried to get in.
Using a collective noun that reveals nothing about the gender of individuals is another way of avoiding gendered plural words:
el profesorado the teachers
el personal the personnel, staff
la ciudadanía citizens
Inclusivity doesn’t just affect the plural, of course. Masculine and feminine choices have to be made when using words referring to people under the Spanish binary grammar system, and a particular choice may be felt to imply something about the sex of the person in question. However, there are some Spanish nouns that reveal nothing about individual gender as they have a fixed gender regardless of who they refer to. Some speakers and writers like to use such words (technically called ‘epicene nouns’) where possible to avoid any inclusivity issues:
la persona (feminine) the person
el individuo (masculine) the individual
la pareja (feminine) the partner (as in other half)
Any adjectives describing these nouns agree in gender with them rather than with the person:
Adán es una persona extraordinaria. Adam is an extraordinary person.
There are other strategies speakers and writers employ to make Spanish more inclusive, but the above are just a few of the standard approaches relating to words for people.
While the following isn’t recognized officially and so cannot be recommended for exam use, some groups have adopted -e as a gender-neutral, non-binary alternative to masculine -o and feminine ‑a. It has a corresponding set of articles too.
le niñe the child (gender unspecified)
une niñe a child (gender unspecified)
les niñes the children (gender-neutral alternative to default masculine plural)
unes niñes some children (gender-neutral alternative to default masculine plural)
Particularly on social media and in other online environments, you may also encounter @ and x used as gender-neutral alternatives to -o and -a, though how you pronounce them is difficult to say!
mi amigx or mi amig@ my friend (gender-neutral)
DID YOU KNOW?
Some names for animals are epicene nouns – they have a fixed gender. For example:
una liebre a hare
una rata a rat
un ratón a mouse
If you do want to specify the gender of the animal, put macho after the noun for a male, and hembra after the noun for a female:
una rata macho, una rata hembra – unas ratas machos, unas ratas hembras
a male rat, a female rat – some male rats, some female rats.
un ratón macho, un ratón hembra – unos ratones machos, unos ratones hembras
a male mouse, a female mouse – some male mice, some female mice
Next month we’ll be tackling another interesting area of Spanish. Do join us!
