gender, articles & plurals

Los Sustantivos, Los Artículos Y Género

[Nouns, Articles and Gender]

In Spanish, all nouns have gender. That means they are either masculine or feminine.

What is a noun?

-A person, place, thing or idea.

Los Sustantivos

Masculine nouns often end in –o.Words that refer to male persons are also

masculine.

ejemplo:

señor (man)

padre (father)

Feminine words often end in –a, -d, or –ión.Words that refer to female persons are also

feminine.

ejemplo:

mujer (woman) madre (mother)

[NOUNS]

What happens when words don’t end with ‘typical’ masculine or feminine endings?

These words must be learned individually.One cannot predict the gender of non-living things

in Spanish.Do not try to analyze the nature of the object,

looking for some inherent masculinity or femininity. It won't work!

Notice how‘la sal’ and ‘el papel’ both end with ‘L’.‘La sal’ (salt) is feminine.

‘El papel’ (paper) is masculine.

Or here, ‘la costumbre’ and ‘el pupitre’ both end with ‘E’.‘La costumbre’ (custom) is feminine.

‘El pupitre’ (desk) is masculine.

ciudad

hombre

regalo

página

madre

canción

mesa

vestido

Can you tell if the following words are masculine or feminine?

Fem. Fem.

Fem.

Fem.

Fem. Masc.

Masc.

Masc.

So what is an

‘article’ anyway?

Articles

Well….in English we have only ONE definite article!

Do you know what it is?

‘THE’

In Spanish there are masculine and feminine ways to say “the”.

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

Masculine nouns in Spanish take masculine articles.

Feminine nouns in Spanish take feminine articles.

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? amigo (friend)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

¿ El or La ? amigo (friend)

lala

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? pared (wall)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? pared (wall)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? mujer (woman)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

¿ El or La ? mujer (woman)lala

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? brazo (arm)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? brazo (arm)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? lección (lesson)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

¿ El or La ? lección (lesson)lala

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? hombre (man)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? hombre (man)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? pierna (leg)

singular

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

¿ El or La ? pierna (leg)

In Spanish, nouns are classified by gender (masculine / feminine).

They are also classified by number (singluar / plural).

To make nouns plural in Spanish is EASY!!!

If the noun ends with a vowel…

If the noun ends with a consonant…

If the noun ends with ‘-z’…

ADD ‘-S’

ADD ‘-ES’

CHANGE ‘-Z’ TO

‘-C’ and ADD ‘-ES’

Make the following words pural!

ZAPATOFLORABEJAPEZDEDOLUZTIGRE

ZAPATOSFLORESABEJASPECESDEDOSLUCESTIGRES

In Spanish, when nouns are made plural, so must their article be made plural, too!!!

Actually, Spanish has FOUR ways to say ‘The’!

singular plural

masculine

feminine

elel

lala

loslos

laslas

Making Nouns Plural

El Libro

Los Libros

This One’s A Little Tougher!

El Tambor

Los Tambores

*Hint- The nouns ends with a consonant

Make the following plural

La Calle

Las Calles

Make the following plural

El Hotel

Los Hoteles

Make the following plural

La Vez

Las Veces

So, we know about definite articles in Spanish. How about

the indefinite articles?

Maybe we should

start with English!

Indefinite Articles

ENGLISH

Singular• ‘A’ or ‘An’

Plural• ‘Some’

SPANISH

Singular• ‘Un’ or ‘Una’

Plural• ‘Unos’ or ‘Unas’

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

Classified by Gender and Number, Spanish Indefinite Articles look like this:

So now, instead of just being able to say ‘the door’, we should be

able to say ‘a door’.

La Puerta

Una Puerta

Not only that, but know we can say ‘Some Doors’ also:

La Puerta

Unas Puertas

[The Door]

[Some] [Doors]

How about trying this:

A Notebook

Un Cuaderno

How about trying this:

The Notebook

El Cuaderno

And this:

The Notebooks

Los Cuadernos

And finally:

Some Notebooks

Unos Cuadernos

One Final Practice

The Papers

A Window

Some Markers

A Clock

The Rooms

Los Papeles

Una Ventana

Unos Marcadores

Un Reloj

Los Cuartos

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

amigo

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

amigo

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

hermano

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

hermano

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chico

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chico

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chica

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chica

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chicos

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chicos

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chicas

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas

¿Un / una / unos / unas?

chicas

singular plural

masculine

feminine

unun

unauna

unosunos

unasunas