evolang.
Browse
About
Spanish · Grammar · A1

Spanish noun gender and articles

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing or idea: book, house, love. Every Spanish noun has a grammatical gender, masculine or feminine. It is a word class, not a statement about sex: a table is feminine (la mesa), a book masculine (el libro). Gender decides the word for “the” and “a” and the ending of every adjective with the noun.

  1. 1 · The four words for “the”
  2. 2 · Telling gender from the ending
  3. 3 · Adjectives agree
  4. 4 · Making plurals
  5. 5 · Why it is el agua
  6. 6 · Nouns for people
MASCULINE FEMININE ONE MORE ellibro · book lacasa · house loslibros · books lascasas · houses
English “the” has four Spanish forms. You choose by asking two questions: masculine or feminine, one or more?

The words for “the” and “a”

Words like “the” and “a” are called articles. The definite article (“the”) points to a specific thing; the indefinite article (“a”, “some”) to any one of a kind. Learn every new noun with its article, as one unit: not “libro” but “el libro”.

Masculine, oneFeminine, oneMasculine, moreFeminine, more
the (definite) elel libro · the booklala casa · the houseloslos libros · the bookslaslas casas · the houses
a, some (indefinite) unun libro · a bookunauna casa · a houseunosunos libros · some booksunasunas casas · some houses
a + el = al
Voy(I) goalto-thecine.cinema
boy ahl THEE-neh “I’m going to the cinema.” A (to) followed by el always joins into al. It never joins with la: voy a la playa (I’m going to the beach).
de + el = del
Es(it) iselthecochecardelof-theprofesor.teacher
es el KOH-cheh del proh-feh-SOR “It’s the teacher’s car.” Spanish has no ’s. “The teacher’s car” becomes “the car of the teacher”, and de + el joins into del.

Telling gender from the ending

You usually can guess. The ending of a noun predicts its gender for the large majority of words. Choose an ending to see examples and how reliable it is.

-o masculine Very reliable
el librothe bookel vasothe glassel niñothe boyel añothe year
The few exceptions are short forms and a handful of old words: la mano (the hand), la foto (short for la fotografía), la radio.

Nouns ending in -e or a consonant other than those above give no clue: el coche (the car) but la noche (the night). These are the ones to learn with their article from the start.

Adjectives agree with their noun

Agreement means an adjective takes the same gender and number (one or more) as the noun it describes. Adjectives ending in -o have four forms; those ending in -e or a consonant have only two, one for singular and one for plural. Most adjectives come after the noun.

Masculine, one
elthecochecarblancowhite
el KOH-cheh BLAHN-koh “the white car”
Feminine, one
lathecasahouseblancawhite
lah KAH-sah BLAHN-kah “the white house”
Masculine, more
losthecochescarsblancoswhite
lohs KOH-ches BLAHN-kohs “the white cars”
Feminine, more
lasthecasashousesblancaswhite
lahs KAH-sahs BLAHN-kahs “the white houses”
One adjective, blanco (white), in four forms. The article, the noun and the adjective all carry the same gender and number signal, so a listener hears it three times.

Adjectives with ser and estar agree the same way: la sopa está fría (the soup is cold), los chicos están cansados (the boys are tired). See ser and estar for which verb to use.

Making plurals

The plural is the form for more than one. Spanish has three spelling rules, and they apply to nouns and adjectives alike.

  1. Ends in a vowel: add -sThe most common case. libro → libroscasa → casascafé → cafés
  2. Ends in a consonant: add -esIncluding y at the end of a word. ciudad → ciudadescolor → coloresrey → reyes
  3. Ends in -z: change to -cesSpanish avoids z before e, so z becomes c. lápiz → lápicesvez → vecesluz → luces
  4. Ends in -ión: add -es, drop the accentThe new syllable makes the accent unnecessary. canción → cancionesestación → estaciones

A mixed group takes the masculine plural: los niños is “the boys” or “the children”, and mis padres (my fathers) means “my parents”. Watch the accent in the -ión rule: it disappears because the extra syllable moves the stress into the normal position, as explained in stress and written accents.

Why it is el agua: feminine nouns with el

Agua (water) is feminine, yet Spanish says el agua. The reason is sound: la agua would run two stressed “a” sounds together. So feminine nouns that begin with a stressed a- or ha- take el and un in the singular. Everything else stays feminine.

SINGULAR elagua fría the water (f.) cold (f.) PLURAL las aguas frías Only the article changes, and only in the singular.
el aguathe waterel águilathe eagleel hambrethe hungerel armathe weaponbut: la alegríastress not on the first a

Nouns for people

For people and many animals, grammatical gender follows the person’s gender. Most nouns change their ending; some keep one form and change only the article.

-o becomes -a The most common pattern.
el amigo / la amigafriendel hijo / la hijason / daughterel abogado / la abogadalawyer
Consonant: add -a For many job titles ending in -or, -és or -n.
el profesor / la profesorateacherel inglés / la inglesaEnglishman / -womanel alemán / la alemanaGerman man / woman
Same word, article changes Nouns ending in -ista, -nte and some others.
el / la estudiantestudentel / la periodistajournalistel / la artistaartist

Where to go next

Next guideSer and estarThe two verbs for “to be”, used with adjectives that agree. Next guideThe present tenseHow verbs change for each person. Next guideThe Spanish alphabetLetter names, which are all feminine: la a, la be. Course mapSpanish hubThe full course map.