gender, articles & plurals
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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 (mather)
[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 Cuarto
¿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