A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea. The gender of nouns A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea. Person: John, girl, dentist Place: garden, university, Venezuela Thing: book, car, tomato Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. Masculine Feminine El chico La chica El gato La gata El libro La camisa

The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female. Masculine Feminine Man Woman Boy Girl Prince Princess

The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures Masculine Feminine Gato gata Perro perra Chico chica Abuelo abuela What do you notice about the last letter of these nouns?

One cannot predict the gender of a noun that stands for a non-living thing. Try to predict whether the Spanish words for the following things are masculine or feminine: Masculine or feminine? Book House Money Window Do not try to analyze the nature of the object, looking for some inherent masculinity or femininity. It won't work!

Take a guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "dress" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be feminine, since a dress is an article of clothing worn by females.

Actually, the word for "dress" is a masculine word: el vestido

So, how do you know when a noun is masculine or feminine? Most nouns that end in –o are masculine: El libro 2. Most nouns that end in –a are feminine: La mesa

Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine: La televisión

The number of nouns The number of a noun refers to whether the noun is singular or plural, that is, to whether it denotes one or more than one subject. This is the same in English: Singular Plural Book books Notice how the ending changes by adding an –s.

To change a noun from singular to plural, we change its ending. And here are the rules that you must memorize: If the noun ends in a vowel, you add an –s: Singular Plural Gato gatos Muchacho muchachos

If the noun ends in a consonant, you add –es: Singular. Plural Reloj If the noun ends in a consonant, you add –es: Singular Plural Reloj relojes If the noun ends in –z, remove the “z” and replace it with –ces: Singular Plural Lápiz lápices

And why does any of this matter? Because Spanish places a great deal more emphasis on gender than does English. Articles and adjectives MUST match the noun in gender and number, which leads to the next lesson: Articles.