In the latest in our series of blog posts on Spanish nouns that can be masculine or feminine depending on meaning we look at pendiente.
You can listen to the pronunciation of pendiente in the audio clip below:
Un pendiente – masculine like the oro (gold) it might well be made of – is an earring, a piece of jewellery that may adorn or dangle from your ear:
¿Se te ha perdido un pendiente?
Have you lost an earring?
Le he regalado unos pendientes de oro.
I gave her some gold earrings.
Una pendiente – feminine like the colina (hill) it may form part of – is a slope or incline:
Cruzaron un río y subieron por una pendiente empinada.
They crossed a river and went up a steep slope.
Los chalets se apiñan por la pendiente de la montaña.
The chalets are clustered together on the mountain slope.
Remember to make any articles and adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they modify:
mis nuevos pendientes dorados
my new gold earrings
una pendiente rocosa
a rocky incline
Both el pendiente, which is related to pender (to hang), and el arete, which is related to aro (hoop), are common words for earring, though there are others too. Los pendientes are used particularly in Spain, while los aretes are used especially in some countries in Latin America.
La novia llevaba collar y pendientes de perlas.
The bride was wearing a pearl necklace and earrings.
Wilma llevaba los aretes que le había regalado su novio.
Wilma was wearing the earrings her boyfriend had given her.
To find out about another noun that can be either masculine or feminine in Spanish depending on the sense, join us next week.
