Gender- Plurality

All nouns in Spanish have a gender. Feminine nouns have the following endings: a as tad (-ty) dad (-ty) tud (-ude) umbre ción (-tion) sión (-sion) All other nouns are masculine. Oh, I forgot to mention, compound nouns (even ones that end in as) are always masculine.

All compound nouns are masculine. Compound nouns combine two words to form a new word. Check it out: el paraguas – umbrella para + aguas = stop + waters el abrelatas – can opener abre + latas = open + cans el sacapuntas – pencil sharpener saca + puntas = get + points ** These are examples of a verb + a noun to equal a compound noun.

Examples of nouns with feminine endings: mesa - table puertas - doors libertad - liberty universidad – university (college) gratitud - gratitude costumbre - habit educación - education decisión - decision

Identify the gender of the following nouns: libro silla montañas chicos chicas beisbol televisión mesa lapiz boligrafo nación educación papel fútbol canción director directora

There are some “rule breakers”: el mapalas tardes los díaslas noches el problemala mano

Nouns in Spanish can be singular or plural. Wow! - just like English? Well, almost… If a noun ends in a vowel, just add an “s”. If a noun ends in an consonant, add “es”. If a noun ends in “z”, change it to a “c” and add “es”. Nouns that already end in “s” don’t change (but the article will - I’ll explain later).

Make the following nouns plural: mapa bolígrafo mochila luz televisión lapiz maestra papel pared pupitre reloj tiza sacapuntas paraguas avión

We use this chart to describe nouns and their modifiers: Wait – What modifies a noun? Adjectives and articles!singularpluralmasculine feminine

Some nouns can have all 4 forms different – like the word for “teacher”:singularpluralmasculinemaestromaestros femininemaestramaestras

Now you do it! Let’s use MUCHACHO!singularpluralmasculine feminine

What about nouns like “estudiante”?singularpluralmasculine feminine

What is an article? Articles define what or which nouns you are talking about. Articles can be DEFINITE or INDEFINITE.

Definite articles translate as “the”.singularpluralmasculineellos femininelalas

Indefinite articles translate as “a, an, or some”.singularpluralmasculineununos feminineunaunas

Which definite and indefinite articles would you use for each noun? chocolate hormiga ladrón libros silla montañas chicos chicas televisión mesa lapiz bolígrafo nación educación papel vaso canción directores directora