1. Gender Niece PENCIL CALCULATOR RULER
What are the genders of these nouns?
Bull
Hen
Husband
Niece
PENCIL
CALCULATOR
RULER

2. Gender
Look at these English words and guess whether they refer to male or female:
Bull
Hen
Husband
Niece
Cousin
Calculator
Love

3. Gender Some are obvious: Others are unknown:
Bull (m.)
Hen (f.)
Husband (m.)
Niece (f.)
Others are unknown:
Cousin (m. or f.)
While others are neither (“neuter”):
Calculator, love

4. Gender
In English, nouns and pronouns fall into three grammatical groups:
Masculine: man, husband, rooster, he
Feminine: woman, wife, hen, she
Neuter: child, bird, it

5. Gender In Spanish, all nouns fall into just two categories:
Masculine (“masculino”)
Feminine (“feminino”)
There is no “neuter” class in which to place nouns such as “table” and “chair.”

6. So what does this mean?
You should start thinking about Spanish nouns as being either masculine or feminine.

7. Let’s take a look!
Here are some nouns with their corresponding definite article (“the”):
el collar (the necklace)
la corbata (the tie)
el paraguas (the umbrella)
la camiseta (the T-shirt)
el pañuelo (the hanky)
la sudadera (the sweatshirt)

8. Let’s reorganize these words.
Put all of the “el” words together:
el collar
el paraguas
el pañuelo
And all the “la” words together:
la corbata
la camiseta
la sudadera

9. That’s easy!
Masculine nouns use the definite article “el” while feminine nouns use “la.”
Let’s look at a few more:
La ropa (the clothes)
El traje de baño (the bathing suit)
La bolsa (the purse)
El abrigo (the winter coat)

10. Just a minute!!
Words that are neuter in English are either masculine or feminine in Spanish.
This does not mean that these words have masculine or feminine characteristics! It is just a purely grammatical classification.

11. Let’s practice!
Do you think these nouns are masculine (“el”) or feminine (“la”)? Don’t worry about the meanings for now.
___ chaqueta
___ gorra
___ bolsillo
___ sombrero

12. How did you do? la chaqueta la gorra el bolsillo el sombrero
Generally speaking, nouns that end in –o are masculine, while those that end in –a are feminine. There are exceptions, but we will worry about them on a case-by-case basis.

13. Here are some different ones:
la ciudad
la universidad
la religión
la división
el actor
el doctor
el español
el túnel

14. Do you see the pattern?
Not all Spanish nouns end in –o and –a, but they still must be either masculine or feminine.
Nouns that end in –ión are usually feminine.
Nouns that end in –dad are always feminine.
Nouns that end in –l and –r are usually masculine.

15. What about…? Nouns that end in –e can be either masculine or feminine:
la clase; el presidente
Some nouns can be both, depending on the meaning:
el presidente (a man)
la presidente (a woman)

16. What’s the bottom line?
Learn every Spanish noun with its article. It will pay off soon, because you will be able to classify new nouns as you see the patterns develop.

17. Agreement Look at these sentences (rojo = red; amarillo = yellow):
El sombrero es rojo.
La corbata es amarilla.
Words that describe “sombrero” also end in –o: rojo
Words that describe “corbata” also end in –a: amarilla

18. What’s going on here?
Other words in the sentence also change to “agree” (match the form of the noun they describe). Here’s another one:
La camisa es blanca.

19. Agreement El sombrero es rojo y negro.
What if there is more than one hat?

20. Agreement Los sombreros son negros y rojos. What is happening??
Los > “the” plural
Sombreros > plural
Son > “are”
negros y rojos> adjectives match the ending of the nouns, too.
This doesn’t happen in English (except for “this/these” and “that/those”). But it’s an important feature in Spanish!

21. Let’s try one! Put the correct ending on each word.
La gorra es blanc__ y amarill__.
El anillo es morad__ y rosad__.

22. The envelope, please! La gorra es blanca y amarilla.
El anillo es morado y rosado.
Now make these sentences plural!

23. Your final answer… Las gorras son blancas y amarillas.
Los anillos son morados y rosados.
How about this sentence in the plural?
El vestido es verde.

24. How did you do? Los vestidos son verdes.
Adjectives that end in –e can be used with either masculine or feminine nouns. To make them plural, just add –s.
Adjectives that end in –r or –l add –es for plural.

25. That’s enough for now!
This is a very tricky concept for learners of Spanish, mainly because it is so different from English.
However, it is extremely important and requires a lot of concentration on your part! Keep your eyes and ears open for gender and agreement, and soon the patterns will become clearer.

26. Wrap up! In Spanish, all nouns fall into just two categories:
Masculine and Feminine
Generally speaking, nouns that end in –o are masculine, while those that end in –a are feminine. There are exceptions, but we will worry about them on a case-by-case basis.
Masculine nouns use the definite article “el” while feminine nouns use “la.”
Not all Spanish nouns end in –o and –a, but they still must be either masculine or feminine.
Adjectives in a sentence must “agree” (match the form of the noun they describe) in number and in gender. For example colors: La camisa roja.