Gender can sometimes be seen as a minefield, which is why we want to start clearing a path through it for Spanish.
Nouns for everything and everyone have one of two genders in Spanish. From objects to animals, from plants to humans, everything is either masculine or feminine. Grammatical gender may overlap with biological sex – un hombre (masculine) a man; una mujer (feminine) a woman – but in the case of things, there’s no sex to overlap with. So why, people often ask, is something such as el cielo (sky) masculine but la tierra (earth) feminine?
It’s an accident of word history. There’s nothing inherently masculine about sky or feminine about land. Spanish and other Romance (from ‘Roman’) languages such as French, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan are descended from Latin, which in its turn developed from Indo-European. Latin had three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), which, while playing their part in making sentence structure comprehensible, often had very little to do with the nature of things. Over time Spanish and its sister languages mainly lost the neuter gender, with Spanish words derived from neuter Latin nouns becoming either masculine or feminine.
The gender of nouns (and their number – whether they are singular or plural) affects the form of words used with them: articles (words for the and a); adjectives in many cases; and any pronouns relating to them. For example:
un chico listo (masculine singular) a clever boy
una chica lista (feminine singular) a clever girl
el pueblo británico (masculine singular) the British people
la vida británica (feminine singular) British life
No encuentro a mi marido. ¿Lo has visto? I can’t find my husband. Have you seen him?
No encuentro a mi hija. ¿La has visto? I can’t find my daughter. Have you seen her?
este hombre (masculine singular) this man
esta mujer (feminine singular)this woman
In practice this agreement of related words in Spanish makes it easy to pick out which words belong together, aiding understanding.
So how do you know whether a Spanish noun is masculine or feminine?
- often by its ending
Most nouns ending in -o are masculine, though common feminine exceptions are mano hand and radio radio.
Most nouns ending in-a are feminine, though common masculine exceptions are día day, mapa map, planeta planet, and lots of nouns (of Greek origin) ending in -ma such as programa program(me),idioma language, tema theme… Additionally, words for people ending in -ista can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person’s sex – el/la dentista the dentist.
Other endings too may be clues. For instance, words ending in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad and -tud are feminine – la versión the version, una nación a nation, la verdad the truth, la libertad freedom, liberty, la virtud virtue.
- by the company it keeps
The form of any articles and adjectives accompanying the noun may help you work out its gender:
un violín moderno a modern violin (violín is masculine)
la catedral católica de San Andrés St Andrew’s Catholic cathedral (catedral is feminine)
- by looking it up in the dictionary and learning its gender.
Some nouns can be either masculine or feminine depending on their meaning. So capital (capital) is masculine when referring to money but feminine when it’s a city. Similarly cura is masculine when it means priest but feminine if it’s a cure. You just have to learn these.
Plural
Articles accompanying plural nouns also change their forms or endings to agree in gender and number with them, as do most adjectives:
unos chicos listos (masculine plural) some clever boys (and girls)
unas chicas listas (feminine plural) some clever girls
los edificios británicos (masculine plural) British buildings
las ciudades británicas (feminine plural) British cities
DID YOU KNOW?
- Some nouns denoting people have only one gender no matter who they are referring to:
la persona (feminine) the person
la víctima (feminine) the victim
el bebé (masculine) the baby.
- Because la and una don’t sound right before a stressed a or ha sound, masculine articles are used instead of feminine ones immediately before feminine singular nouns beginning with these sounds. However the gender of these nouns is still feminine, so adjectives describing them take the feminine form:
el agua salada salt water
un águila dorada a golden eagle
un hacha afilada a sharp axe - BUT una enorme águila an enormous eagle (here, the normal feminine article is correct as the a sounds are separated)
las águilas de Escocia Scotland’s eagles (the feminine plural article presents no sound issues).
QUIZ TIME
The following examples contain errors. Can you find and correct them? You may need to check genders in the dictionary.
- el mano izquierdo
- los águilas
- una día perfecto
- el radio nuevo
- las mapas antiguos
- un reunión importante
- la programa de televisión
- la tema interesante
- las sistemas modernos
- un canción bonito
- el noche estrellado
- los fotos antiguas
- una idioma difícil
- las problemas económicos
- el ciudad grande
- la mapa turístico
- el planeta roja
- las días largos
- un mano pequeña
- los víctimas inocentes
- las programas educativos
- la agua fría
- una águila hermoso
- la hacha afilado
- un área protegido
ANSWERS
- el mano izquierdo → la mano izquierda
- los águilas → las águilas
- una día perfecto → un día perfecto
- el radio nuevo → la radio nueva
- las mapas antiguos → los mapas antiguos
- un reunión importante → una reunión importante
- la programa de televisión → el programa de televisión
- la tema interesante → el tema interesante
- las sistemas modernos → los sistemas modernos
- un canción bonito → una canción bonita
- el noche estrellado → la noche estrellada
- los fotos antiguas → las fotos antiguas
- una idioma difícil → un idioma difícil
- las problemas económicos → los problemas económicos
- el ciudad grande → la ciudad grande
- la mapa turístico → el mapa turístico
- el planeta roja → el planeta rojo
- las días largos → los días largos
- un mano pequeña → una mano pequeña
- los víctimas inocentes → las víctimas inocentes
- las programas educativos → los programas educativos
- la agua fría → el agua fría
- una águila hermoso → un águila hermosa
- la hacha afilado → el hacha afilada
- un área protegido → un área protegida
For more on nouns, articles and adjectives see the Easy Learning Spanish Grammar.
Next month we’ll be looking at some more gender issues in Spanish and tackling gender-inclusive language. Do join us!
