Spanish nouns

Basic Spanish Grammar
Spanish language
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Spanish nouns

Nouns in Spanish: Masculine/Feminine (1)

In Spanish language nouns are masculine or feminine, either for person, thing, place, quality or idea.
Usually nouns are accompanied by an article or a limiting adjective (demonstrative, possesiv, indefinite article...)
Normally it is possible to know the gender of a word depending od the word's ending.

Endings for Masculine nouns

Endings for Feminine nouns

- o

- a

The mayority of the nouns ending in -o are masculine: libro, curso, camarero, perro

The mayority of the nouns ending in -a are feminine: mesa, lengua, camarera, gata

There are some exceptions: la mano for example. La moto is not a real exception because the complete word is motocicleta.

There are some exceptions: el día, el mapa for example.

- ma

- ión

Some nouns ending in -ma (similar in English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese... because all they have the same rooth -from Greek language) are masculine: el problema, el tema, el sistema, el programa, el clima, el idioma,

Nouns ending in -ción, -sión, are feminine: la emoción, la tensión, la canción, la entonación, la habitación...

Nouns in Spanish: Singular/Plural (1)

In Spanish language nouns can change into singular or plural.

To form the plural of the nouns depends on the end of the noun:

If the noun ends in a vowel, add +s : libro - libros, mesa - mesas, niño - niños

If the noun ends in a consonant, add +es : profesor - profesores, español - españoles

If the noun ends in -z, it changes into -c when add -es : lápiz - lápices, andaluz - andaluces

If the noun ends in -és or - ón , when add -es, it looses the accent: inglés - ingleses, canción - canciones

If the noun ends in -es and has more than one syllable, it does not change: el lunes - los lunes, la crisis - las crisis

Basic Spanish Grammar Spanish language Quick Spanish Reference for grammar

Basic Spanish Grammar
Spanish language
Quick Spanish Reference for grammar