In Spanish, all nouns have grammatical “gender.” Nouns may be “masculine” or “feminine,” but unless it is a living, breathing creature, grammatical gender is totally arbitrary. When we refer to “number,” we are talking about whether the noun is singular or plural.
El - el profesor
La - la profesora
Los - los animales
Las - las manzanas
Un - un libro
Una - una chica
Unos - unos amigos
Unas - unas galletas
Nouns that end in –o
El libro, el vestido, el escritorio, el plato
Nouns that end in a consonant
El ordenador, el lápiz, el reloj
Nouns that end in –e*
El estante, el ambiente, el timbre
Nouns that end in –ma and –pa AND are cognates**
El problema, el sistema, el programa, el fantasma, el mapa
*We see more exceptions than usual with this group, but odds are that it will be masculine. Common feminine exceptions are: la clase, la noche, la tarde.
**Cognates are words that look alike, sound alike and mean alike in both languages.
Nouns that end in –a
La computadora, la corbata, la cámara, la manzana, la mesa
Nouns that end in –ión (the English equivalent is “tion)
La solución, la situación, la comunicación, la complicación
Nouns that end in –ad (the English equivalent is “ty”)
La comunidad, la universidad, la libertad, la humanidad
Reminder—unless you are talking about a living, breathing creature,
GENDER IS ARBITRARY.
Is a table inherently feminine? No. Are shoes inherently masculine? No.
Sometimes we even see two words for the same thing and one is masculine and the other is feminine, such as the words for “pen” and “computer.”
Females
La señora, la mujer, la chica, la estudiante, la perra*, la gata*
*People who know that their pet is female will use the feminine form. If the sex of a pet or animal is unknown, the masculine form is typically used.
Males
El señor, el hombre, el chico, el estudiante, el perro, el gato
Transgender and non-binary individuals
For individuals who identify as male or female, always use the grammatical gender that corresponds to a person’s identity. To ask someone what their pronouns are, ask: “¿Cuál es su pronombre?” To respond, answer: “Mi pronombre es ________ .” Fill in the blank with él (he), ella (she), or another pronoun such as elle (non-gendered, singular). With that said, non-binary pronouns such as elle are newly emergent and may not be widely used or understood.
Spanish, as a highly gendered language, has not yet adapted systematically to account for non-binary identities. There is a movement to use terms such as Latinx, although the “x” is not currently used in sentence structure and is not yet widely used outside of the United States. The use of –e endings instead of –o or –a endings on gendered nouns, articles, and adjectives has also emerged from Spanish-speaking communities. While there currently is not a unanimously accepted solution for how to approach gender agreement for non-binary individuals, language evolves alongside the communities that use it to express their life experiences, and this is an ongoing conversation. If you are non-binary, you may choose to initiate a conversation with your instructor to discuss ways that you can use the language to best describe yourself.
Groups
Groups are only feminine when every member of the group is female. If one male is present, the group will become masculine.
Work with a partner to guess the gender of each of these vocabulary words—use pencil. Then, we will check them together as a class and discuss the meaning of each word.
________ bolígrafo ________
