Spanish Lesson: Masculine and Feminine, Singular and Plural
Masculine or Feminine?
Have you ever wondered how to tell whether a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish? Is it random? Are there rules?
In fact, there are general rules to know the gender of a word. For instance, as a general rule, words ending in -o are masculine and words ending in -a are
feminine. Look at this chart:
| ♂ MASCULINO (-o) | ♀ FEMENINO (-a) |
|---|---|
|
niño |
niña |
|
médico |
médica |
|
oso |
osa |
|
teléfono |
cama |
|
libro |
playa |
|
dormitorio |
casa |
There are words like niño, médico and oso that can be masculine (-o) and feminine (-a).
Other words such as teléfono, libro, dormitorio, cama, playa and casa don’t vary from masculine to feminine, i.e. teléfono is always masculine and cama is always feminine, there is no “teléfona” or “camo”.
But why does this happen? Well, it is very easy. The gender of a word must agree with the gender of the person or animal it refers to.
El niño se llama Felipe. – The boy’s name is Felipe.
La niña se llama Alicia. – The girl’s name is Alicia.
María es médica. – Maria is a doctor.
Pedro es médico. – Pedro is a doctor.
El oso es muy grande. – The bear (male) is very large.
La osa es muy grande. – The bear (female) is very large.
Words that refer to objects or places never change their gender.
El teléfono de Marta es muy moderno. – Marta’s phone is very modern.
Ese libro es muy aburrido. – This book is very boring.
La playa pequeña está cerca del hotel. – The small beach is close to the hotel.
Mi casa es moderna y bonita. – My house is modern and beautiful.
It seems simple, but what about all those words that do not end in -o or -a? Well, there are some more general rules to identify the masculine and feminine. However, in other cases the only way to learn them is to memorize them.
Singular or Plural?
As a Spanish learner, you have surely made the common mistake of la gente *son, you have forgotten to add an –s to a plural word or you have not changed the adjective to plural or singular. If any of these things sound familiar to you, you need this blog.
You probably already know that in Spanish it is very important to know how to form the plural of words in order to speak correctly. As a general rule, we form the plural of words by adding -s.
| SINGULAR | PLURAL (-s) |
|---|---|
|
playa |
playas |
|
café |
cafés |
|
taxi |
taxis |
|
niño |
niños |
|
ñu |
ñus |
Esta playa es muy bonita, pero las playas de mi isla son mejores.
– This beach is very nice, but the beaches of my island are better.
Normalmente tomo tres cafés por la mañana y un café por la tarde.
– I usually have three coffees in the morning and one coffee in the afternoon.
When the word ends in a consonant we add -es to form the plural.
| SINGULAR (consonant) | PLURAL (+es) |
|---|---|
|
cartel |
carteles |
|
salón |
salones |
|
comedor |
comedores |
|
reloj |
relojes |
En la calle Gran Vía hay muchos teatros con carteles que anuncian los espectáculos que tienen. El cartel del musical “El rey león” es mi favorito.
– On Gran Vía street there are many theaters with posters advertising the shows they have. The poster for the musical “The Lion King” is my favorite.
El salón de mi casa es bastante pequeño, pero los salones que hay en los nuevos apartamentos son minúsculos.
– The living room in my house is quite small, but the living rooms in the new apartments are tiny.
These are just some of the general rules, but there is much more you need to know. To learn and practice general rules, exceptions and much more, visit our post on “Singular and Plural in Spanish“.
