1. Word Gender Craig Thomas B.A.

2. What is a Noun? 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

3. Male/Female Words? MasculineFeminine el chicola chica boygirl el jardínla universidad gardenuniversity el librola revista bookmagazine el miedola libertad fearliberty

4. Living Beings MasculineFeminine manwoman tigertigress aviatoraviatrix 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.

5. Living Beings (Spanish) The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures. el perro male dog la perra female dog Boy El chico Girl la chica

6. What do we notice? Masculine el gato el perro el chico el abuelo Feminine la gata la perra la chica la abuela

7. El & La El and La both mean “The” in Spanish! el chico (the boy) la chica (the girl) el perro (the male dog) la gata (the female cat)

8. Masculine or Feminine? Libro (book) Escritorio (Desk) Mesa (Table) Lampara (Lamp) Ventana (Window) Suelo (Floor) Vestido (Dress)

9. Changing Gender/Changing Endings Changing Masculine nouns that end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in -a. el profesor la profesora el doctor la doctora el señor la señora Non-Changing Some nouns that refer to people use the same form for both masculine and feminine. These nouns indicate gender by the article (el or la). el estudiante la estudiante el pianista la pianista el artista la artista

10. More Endings! Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine. la televisión la decisión la conversación la habitación la ciudad la universidad la dificultad la libertad la actitud la gratitud la certidumbre la muchedumbre

11. Why should we learn articles? When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la). There are several reasons for this: Because you cannot predict the gender of most nouns. Because not every noun that ends in -o is masculine, and not every noun that ends in -a is feminine. Because many nouns end in letters other than o or a. Because the definite article (el, la) is your clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.