Nouns and Articles

Nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the noun may be something that is usually associated with men, or with women. For example, a table is feminine and a car is masculine. You really can't apply any sort of logic to guess if something is masculine or feminine; you simply have to learn it.

The majority of Spanish nouns end in -o or in -a. Most of the nouns ending in '-o' are masculine and those ending in '-a' are usually feminine.

The definite articles (translated as the in English are: el, la, los, las. The indefinite articles (translated as a when singular, and some when plural) are: un, una, unos, unas.

The plural of nouns is formed by adding s if it ends in a vowel, or by adding es if it ends in a consonant. Now let's look at some examples of the definite and indefinite articles and singular and plural nouns:

Singular
el libro (the book)
la mesa (the table)
un libro (a book)
una mesa (a table)

Plural
los libros (the books)
las mesas (the tables)
unos libros (some books)
unas mesas (some tables)

As stated above, you must remember if the nouns are masculine or feminine if they don't end in '-o' or '-a'. However the articles still work as shown above. Examples:

Singular
el coche (the car)
la flor (the flower)
un coche (a car)
una flor (a flower)

Plural
los coches (the cars)
las flores (the flowers)
unos coches (some cars)
unas flores (some flowers)

Some nouns, especially those which refer to profession or nationality, have a masculine form when referring to a man, and a feminine form when referring to a woman. The words ending in '-ista' do not change the ending, but the article does change. Examples:

Masculine
un inglés (an English man)
el mexicano (the Mexican man)
un abogado (a male lawyer)
un turista (a male tourist)

Feminine
una inglesa (an English woman)
la mexicana (the Mexican woman)
una abogada (a female lawyer)
una turista (a female tourist)

Then you'll find some words which do just the opposite of what you would expect: el mapa, el día, la radio, etc. But there aren't too many of these. They tend to be common words which you can learn as you go along.

Related Topics

Adjectives
Contents
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