After learning that every Spanish noun has a gender and the initial shock has worn off, an uncomfortable reality sets in.
You now have to memorize an additional piece of information on top of learning a vast array of unfamiliar words.
Not only do you have to remember that nouns such as césped means ‘lawn’, you also have to remember that ‘lawn’ in Spanish is masculine: el césped.
What’s worse, there are some noun genders that are still up for debate amongst native speakers.
I recently witnessed an animated discussion over the word elfo (elf). Once we moved past the idea that an elf was actually different to a smurf, and did, in fact, have a gender, the question remained, how do you say female elf in Spanish?: ¿Es una elfo? ¿Es una elfa? o ¿Es una elfina? After consulting the main authority website for debates of this nature (www.fundeu.es), the answer was disappointing—there is no consensus.
All that said, you won’t have to worry about the gender of words that are subject to debate amongst natives. If a word like this does come up in conversation, it will make for an interesting discussion.
Instead, what you should focus on is a number of rules you can use to simplify the process of recalling the gender of Spanish nouns. This, in turn, will help you develop and understand the role your intuition plays over time with language learning and, in particular noun gender.
The role of intuition in language learning
When I first started learning Spanish, the fear of forgetting the genders of nouns had a big impact on me.
For a long time, I didn’t believe I was good at language learning. The biggest factor that contributed to my doubts was a mental hurdle I had to face: could I really memorise the amount of information you need to speak another language?
The vocabulary itself was one thing, but then the thought of having to memorise an associated el and la for every noun honestly seemed like something I could never overcome.
But, years on from that moment, I can confidently say that it is possible, and there is another important factor that I never thought would be part of the equation—intuition.
The idea for this post came from a conversation I had when I was out for dinner with a Spanish friend last week.
We were chatting about life, and at one point in the conversation the concept of owning a home came up. I started to say something about having to mow the lawn, and work in the garden, and as I said these words in Spanish I started one with la and quickly corrected myself to el and said the other with el.
These words are both masculine: el jardín (the garden) and el césped (the lawn or grass).
As I was speaking, I realised that I didn’t remember a specific rule with these two words, they just felt right being masculine.
I thought myself ‘how do I know this?’ and the only answer that came to mind is that over time with plenty of exposure and practice, right and wrong simply starts to feel natural.
When I started to say la césped, I thought this just doesn’t seem right. I don’t know why. It just doesn’t.
If you had told me at the very start of my language learning journey that intuition was an important factor for remembering things such as the gender of nouns, I wouldn’t have believed you.
To respond, I might have told my younger self that you have probably had a similar experience with your English. A simple example might be ‘My friend and me went to the movies’. Despite this usage becoming more and more common, this mistake doesn’t feel right when you analyse it.
The reason it doesn’t feel right isn’t that you were taught a set of rules and the sentence clearly breaks those rules.
It’s that after years of exposure and conditioning with the English language, a grammatical mistake just won’t intuitively feel right.
Given enough time, this same thing will happen with your Spanish.
Put simply, the process of learning goes like this:
- Learn what something is supposed to be
- Forget what it is supposed to be (Not deliberately, it just happens as you focus on new information) then
- Use your intuition later.
The quickest way to embed this concept in your mind is to experience it.
So, learn the following noun patterns in this post. Practice them. Then over time, forget them. Then see if sometime in the next 1 month, 2 months or more, if you can experience an intuitive muscle that will help provide not only guidance at the moment but confidence that achieving your language goals, is simply a case of doing more of what’s working, and letting the subconscious do the rest.
Category 1 – Nouns ending in ‘o’ and ‘a’
Rather than naming the next few sections of this post ‘rule 1’, ‘rule 2’ etc., I will call them categories. This is because each Spanish noun will fall into one of the following categories, and because there are lots of exceptions to any kind of rules.
Moreover, these categories are simply there to help you make intuitive guesses in the future.
The first and most basic category is: nouns that end in ‘o’ are masculine and nouns that end in ‘a’ are feminine.
Here are some examples:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The thing | La cosa |
| The house | La casa |
| The life | La vida |
| The person | La persona |
| The word | La palabra |
| The year | El año |
| The side | El lado |
| The job | El trabajo |
| The type | El tipo |
| The example | El ejemplo |
There are a lot of nouns in Spanish that fall into this category. This is what makes learning masculine and feminine Spanish nouns easier than other romance languages such as French.
Category 2 – Nouns that don’t end ‘o’ or ‘a’ and are masculine
The following nouns are a fair bit harder than the previous category. There aren’t any specific rules that will help with these nouns.
What I haven’t done, though, is choose these words at random. They come from the conversation hacking guide, which means they occur frequently in Spanish, therefore you are probably going to need them in one of your next Spanish interactions.
I will continue to choose nouns from the high-frequency list for the rest of the post.
Here are the examples:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The man | El hombre |
| The father | El padre |
| The country | El país |
| The place | El lugar |
| The name | El nombre |
| The month | El mes |
| The front | El frente |
| The order | El orden |
| The end | El fin |
| The paper | El papel |
Category 3 – Nouns that don’t end ‘o’ or ‘a’ and are feminine
Similar to category 2, here are some examples for Spanish nouns that don’t end in an ‘o’ or ‘a’ and are feminine.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The woman | La mujer |
| The mother | La madre |
| The time | La vez |
| The part | La parte |
| The people | La gente |
| The afternoon | La tarde |
| The night | La noche |
| The truth | La verdad |
| The street | La calle |
| The light | La luz |
Category 4 – Nouns that reverse category 1
Just to make life annoying, here are some examples of feminine nouns that end in an ‘o’ and masculine nouns that end in an ‘a’.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The motorbike | La moto |
| The photo | La foto |
| The radio | La radio |
| The hand | La mano |
| The libido | La libido |
| The day | El día |
| The map | El mapa |
| The comet | El cometa |
| The idiot | El idiota |
| The planet | El planeta |
Before moving on, I’ll point out that the first few examples in this category, nouns that end in ‘o’ but are feminine, are quite rare. You pretty much have the whole list for the Spanish language there above.
Moreover, these first few nouns are actually short for longer nouns including ‘la motocicleta‘, ‘la fotografía‘, and ‘la radiofonía‘. This also helps explain why they are feminine.
There are more female nouns that end in ‘o’ but they are different. You’ll see what I mean in the next section.
Category 5 – Nouns for profession that change with gender
Spanish nouns for profession behave in two basic ways: for some professions, the ending of the noun changes depending on whether the person is male or female, for other professions you change the article but not the noun.
Here are some examples where the noun changes:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The chef (male) | El cocinero |
| The chef (female) | La cocinera |
| The architect (male) | El arquitecto |
| The architect (female) | La arquitecta |
| The lawyer (male) | El abogado |
| The lawyer (female) | La abogada |
| The teacher (male) | El profesor |
| The teacher (female) | La profesora |
| The translator (male) | El traductor |
| The translator (female) | La traductora |
Category 6 – Nouns for profession that don’t change with gender
Here are some examples where you only change the article:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The model (male) | El modelo |
| The model (female) | La modelo |
| The soldier (male) | El soldado |
| The soldier (female) | La soldado |
| The florist (male) | El florista |
| The florist (female) | La florista |
| The dentist (male) | El dentista |
| The dentist (female) | La dentista |
| The athlete (male) | El atleta |
| The athlete (female) | La atleta |
Category 7 – Nouns ending in ‘ma’
There are lots and lots of Spanish nouns that end in the letters ‘ma’, and they are almost always male.
This category is a handy trick to keep in mind.
Here are some examples:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The drama | El drama |
| The language | El idioma |
| The program | El programa |
| The topic | El tema |
| The dilemma | El dilema |
| The climate | El clima |
| The system | El sistema |
| The diagram | El diagrama |
| The ghost | El fantasma |
| The enigma | El enigma |
Here are two exceptions for this rule: la cama (the bed) and la forma (the form).
As an aside, the word ‘enigma’ is a good word to use to practice your pronunciation, as it sounds almost exactly the same in both English and Spanish.
Category 8 – Nouns ending in ‘sión’ or ‘ción’
The words in this category are easy to remember as they are mostly made up of English-Spanish cognates.
These words are all female.
Here are some examples:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The action | La acción |
| The atention | La atención |
| The celebration | La celebración |
| The condition | La condición |
| The coversation | La conversación |
| The information | La información |
| The translation | La traducción |
| The room | La habitación |
| The decision | La decisión |
| The television | La televisión |
There are a few male exceptions, but they are very low-frequency words. So low, in fact, they don’t even show up in my 50,000-word Spanish-Spanish dictionary.
Category 9 – Nouns ending in ‘dad’ or ‘tad’ or ‘tud’
This category of nouns, that end in ‘dad’, ‘tad’ or ‘tud’, are also all female.
Here are some examples:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The city | La ciudad |
| The university | La universidad |
| The necessity | La necesidad |
| The reality | La realidad |
| The velocity | La velocidad |
| The difficulty | La dificultad |
| The liberty | La libertad |
| The attitude | La actitud |
| The gratitude | La gratitud |
| The request | La solicitud |
As an aside on this category, the word universidad is one of my favourite words in the Spanish language. I just love how it sounds!!
Category 10 – Just weird
This last category is made up of nouns that make their own rules.
These nouns behave in a very unusual way, mostly due to issues involved in their pronunciation.
These are:
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| The water | El agua |
| The soul | El alma |
| The hunger | El hambre |
All three of these nouns are actually feminine. But, when you say them with an article it needs to be el. This is to solve the problem of the ‘a’ in la stringing together with the ‘a’ in agua, alma, or the first syllable in hambre since the letter ‘h’ is almost always silent in Spanish.
When you combine these nouns with Spanish adjectives, you can see that they are feminine:
English: The cold water.
Español: El agua fría.
English: The willing soul.
Español: El alma dispuesta.
English: The intense hunger.
Español: El hambre intensa.
Your turn
What does your intuition tell you about masculine and feminine Spanish nouns?
Remembering these rules is about long term exposure and practice. Try to use a noun from each of these 10 categories over the next few weeks and months and the return to the post to test your knowledge.
What are your thoughts on masculine and feminine Spanish nouns? What are your thoughts on language learning and the role of intuition? Please let me know in the comments below.
Do you know any other tricks for learning the gender of nouns in Spanish?
I learned that ‘el problema’ is masculine and ‘la solución’ is feminine. This is always fun with a co-ed group. 🙂
Yes, I love this example and I often use it with students! 🙂
Actually, Andrew, where I come from, my friend and me went to the cinema is perfectly correct – non-standard, but correct. If we used ‘I’ there, we’d sound ‘posh’. It’s not incorrect, and as a grammarian and linguist, I much prefer the standard v non-standard interpretation, as it doesn’t label my community sub-standard because of their use of language. We simply use language in a different way, as do our own two super-communities – UK and Australia. But I get the intuition bit, which is very useful, though sadly, it’s often because we’re taught that how we speak is ‘wrong’. I’ve had many an argument with people who say ‘I don’t speak propery’ – very sad that they’ve been taught from an early age to belittle something as basic as their own use of their own language…
By the way, this article and the work done in your course El Viajero have helped me enormously with the confusing world of Spanish word gender.
Hola Sylvia, yes, I agree that we should never belittle anyone for their use of any language. And, the English language is always evolving. I often use the “me, myself and I” example to demonstrate this because this kind of thing happens in Spanish as well. When studying a language, I think it’s is important to include what the grammar book says and also how Spanish natives often speak and where this doesn’t align with the grammar books. Thanks for the kind words about the article and the course!
Totally, Andrew. But it’s the difference between using the word ‘wrong’ and the expression ‘non-standard’. Since completing my linquistics module with the OU a few years ago, I totally changed my thinking. Just a thought.
Yes, it’s useful thought! Do you think there is still a place for the words “wrong”, “mistake” or “incorrect” in the context of languages? E.g. If I said “me went to the cinema” or “I like the car red”, should we consider these sentences as “incorrect” or “non-standard”?
Yes, I do. Your examples are, to all intents and purposes, wrong – or are they? The distinction to me is whether a native speaker would use the langauge. In fact, the first is dubious, because there are places where ‘me’ would be used instead of ‘I’ in the world of spoken English. ‘The car red’ is clearly a word order that would not come naturally to a native speaker , though – as far as I know. Also, I think there needs to be a distinction between the spoken and written language. I teach my French students that the French say ‘j’y pas’ instead of ‘je ne sais pas’, but clearly, if they want to pass exams, they need to use the expression in full.
Interestingly, this week I read in one of our local freecycle posts ‘offer: green small cushions’. This felt very odd, and I thought that the person writing that, if he or she was a local, would have said ‘small green cushions’, but that it might be a written thing, that they were not totally comfortable writing things down, maybe!
So I think there are grey areas. The most important factor is that, if non-standard terms are used by native speakers in the spoken language, then they are not wrong, although I would be hard put to know all the non-standard forms of English in the world. Of course, 2nd language learners need to know the difference between standard English, which they must use to pass exams, or apply for jobs, but they should not be encouraged to see native speakers as ‘wrong’. For instance, if I hear non-standard expressions in other languages, I don’t immediately think that the native speaker is ‘wrong’, but merely speaking in a localised dialect or normal spoken (eg ‘street’) language. Yet 2nd language English learners are often encouraged to report such expressions as ‘me and Jane’s goin t’t cinema tonight’ as ‘wrong’. Yet this is how most of my neighbours would speak.
In short, it’s a tough area, but I’ve learnt to be very guarded. But I do believe that, for some incredible reason, order of adjectives seems to be instinctive, and examples of changed adjectival order do feel ‘wrong’ to me…
Yes, it is a difficult topic but a worthwhile discussion. In the Spanish language, there are terms such as “dequeísmo”, “queísmo” and “leísmo” to describe situations that you are referring to as “non-standard”. It would be great if there was a term like “meism” to describe the use of “me” vs “I” in certain regions of the English-speaking world.
Yes, it would be useful. Maybe we should invent it! I must put some thought into that…
Well, here’s one for you and it all revolves around husbands and wives. In Mexico, most often from my experience they use the terms esposo, and esposa for husband and wife. But, in Spain, I am told, they seem to use marido for the husband and mujer for the wife and there is no marida for wife. It seems a little politically incorrect to use the word mujer “woman” for a wife it makes it sound like the “my woman” syndrome of the typical male chauvinist. Is this correct?
I think it’s important to avoid trying to figure out what is politically correct based on a translation from one language to another. Something that is perfectly fine in English could be politically incorrect in French or Korean. When it comes to the use of “mi mujer”, we need to ask a native in a Spanish-speaking country if they think it is politically correct or not. But, then, on top that, these concepts can be political, so what one native says on the topic might be different from another. As Spanish students, I think it is really important to have an open mind on these topics and look to natives (friends, colleagues and teachers) that we know and trust as well as governing bodies for the management of the language such as RAE (Real Academia Española) to provide guidance on these topics.
hello Andrew
Thanks for your succinct and clear explanations.
I am a learner and have been using Duolingo. Com, and some grammars.
According to the general rule: Adjective always should follow the noun. Some exceptions are “buen, mal, etc.
But I frequently find the rule is not followed, and adjective comes before the noun, as in: ” Ella tiene una bonita voz”. My answer: “ella tiene una voz bonita”, was marked wrong.
I have seen multiple such examples where the adjective precedes the noun.
Would you kindly explain , when is it ok to put adjective before noun, or after it.
I thank you.
Hola Saf, check out our article on Spanish adjectives: https://www.realfastspanish.com/grammar/spanish-adjectives
I agree, with the ins and outs of “correctness” that you shared. I know a guy who speaks a Philippine dialect and shared a story with me about getting in a bind using an insulting slang word. So far most of the Mexicans I talk with just smile when I make a mistake and correct me.
My observation however was also about the curious asynchrony between esposo, esposa, and marido (no marida). I find it interesting that there isn’t a feminine version of marido like there is with esposo/esposa. Just sayin’
Haha, thanks for sharing Mike 🙂
I had a discussion with a native from Puerto Rico about articles for such words as el alma, el hambre, etc. When I asked about La Alhambra, his investigation found that when the noun begins with an “a” or “ha” and the emphasis is also on the first syllable, as in “alma” or “hambre”, then the article must be “el”, but when the emphasis is on a different syllable of the noun beginning with an “a” or “ha”, then “la” is acceptable. What is your take on this?
Yes, that sounds good to me Linda! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I guess I am less error adverse. Having started learning languages as a tyke at my aunt’s knee, I either figured out or was told that it was O.K. to make mistakes. As I got older I decided to work this out so no one got their knickers in a knot by saying this up front in whatever language I was using by including this in my introduction: I will say, ” Hello, my name is Mike and I don’t speak your language well, so if I make mistakes please lay a mantel of charity over me and tell me what I did wrong.”
Most native speakers will give you a break if you royally screw things up, because they have been prepared for any mistakes you make.
I also learned through my own efforts to focus on task oriented language phrases, snippets etc. I am told that it is like the Berlitz method and through comparison and intuition as you say discovered, once I had learned enough phrases these phrases were a guide to how to use not only male and female aspects of the language i.e. la versus el, but also simple verb conjugation.
I hope the tip helps other.
Hola Mike, thanks for sharing. Yes, we should be okay with making mistakes especially when we are starting out. But, after we have got over that hurdle, we should aim to make fewer and fewer mistakes over time as we improve our skills.
Words that end in -ín (jardín); -ón (jamón) are usually masuline…
Nice one Andrew!! Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Your exchange with Ms. May, I found very interesting. Language changes with usage. I have observed some of these changes in my 85 years. I have heard it said, maybe even by you, that in English we do not have a subjunctive case or mood. When I was in school, we were taught subjunctive mood. Similar to Spanish, one of the “triggers” is the word “if” as in the phrase “if I were” and another “would that it were”. I very rarely here that anymore, even among well educated people in jobs such as television news anchors.
Also, you mention in your article the use of el with agua, etc. Which indefinite article should be used with these feminine nouns. My guess would be “an”.
Roy Wallace
Thanks for sharing Roy!! 🙂 To answer your question about nouns in last group, we can use this example “She has a good soul – Tiene un alma buena”. We can see that “alma” is feminine but we still us “un” before it.
I am learning Spanish, and all of the teachers I have had emphasize not using “informal” or “street” Spanish that you may have learned because you never know how it may come across to others. As a former teacher of Spanish-speaking students who was trying to learn Spanish, I heard my students use words that I was unfamiliar with. Some of the other students explained to me that these words were not considered “nice” or “proper” so I avoided even asking what they meant. (Even though I could guess!) I have enough difficulty just learning the proper way to speak, much less learning all the slang! Besides, one wants to come across as polite and well-spoken, especially in a foreign country.
Thanks for sharing Cynthia! 🙂 Yes, the key is to focus on the fundamentals and the slang will come later, and the better you understand the fundamentals, the easier it will be to pick up the slang!
I have always wondered why daughter-in -law is “nuera” but son-in-law is “yerno”. Why not “nuero”?
Hola Terry, there are many words that we could ask these questions of: why is it “la mano”? why is it “el dentista”? El tema? etc., the key is to notice the unusual patterns and then practice them so we can remember them.
The pattern of -ista suffixes in Spanish being both male and female are kind of interesting (and helpful) to me.
Thanks for sharing Joel! 🙂
I Iike your term “ intuitive muscle” I use a lot of this muscle to learn Spanish.
Nice Marthe! 🙂
I’m always amused that the word for shirt in spanish is la camisa and the word for dress is el vestido!
Thanks for sharing Marcia, yes, it’s always interesting to get a new perspective on words and how they behave in different languages.
I loved this article. In fact I was hoping someday to come across such a clear conceptualisation of this matter. Thank you so much
Thanks for the feedback Keyur! I’m glad you enjoyed the article 🙂
Please address this difference:
My friend from Lima, Peru said that when two words are back-to-back in a sentence, and the last letter of the first word matches the first letter/sound of the second word, I should “blend” the two words together as if they are one word, for fluency like a native (which makes it harder for me to understand the spoken word—-I need separation of sound so I hear two distinct words).
However, your Category 10 works on the opposite reasoning. El agua, not la agua. The same reasoning for linking two words with “e” instead of “y” for “and”; “u” instead of “o” for “or” (in consideration of the first letter or first sound of the following word.
Hola Tom, I agree with your friend from Lima. There are two different ideas here. Firstly, in a sentence like “va a hacerlo pronto” (he is going to do it soon), then the “a” of “va” and the “a” and the starting syllable of “hacer” (since h’s are silent) will all “blend” together, the “va a hacer” will sound like “vaa-ser” with a slightly longer “a”. In contrast “el agua” is a special noun that takes the masculine article even though it is a feminine noun. So, this situation isn’t about opposite reasoning, it’s a case of two different scenarios.
un elfo and una hada – elves are masculine, fairies are feminine.
Thanks for sharing Garry! 🙂
Gracias Andrew por la listas. Son muy útiles. No hubiera creído que la intuición podía ayudarme en eligiendo el género correcto si me preguntaste hace cinco años. Pero es verdad, después del tiempo podemos oír si el género es correcto. Sin embargo es verdad que unas palabras yo haya habido aprender con esfuerzo. (last sentence grammar questionable) Mi lista favorita es la ultima…”just weird” 😂
¡Muy bien! Gracias por el comentario Paul. 🙂