One of the first big differences between English and Spanish that Spanish learners are likely to encounter is the gendering of nouns (and consequently, of adjectives and articles). Nouns in English generally have no gender. A few exceptions can be identified, such as with words that specify the gender of the human to which they refer (boy, girl, man, woman), but English speakers would never identify as feminine such words as "house," "swimming pool," "street," or "democracy"; nor would they identify as masculine such words as "garden," "patio," "love," or "noise."
Spanish, on the other hand, genders all nouns, the adjectives that describe those nouns, and the articles placed before them. For English speakers learning Spanish, it is very tempting to try to apply some sort of logic to figure out which nouns are feminine and which are masculine. Sometimes, the application of logic works! For example, the word for “woman” (mujer) is indeed feminine (la mujer=the woman), while the word for “man” (hombre) is masculine (el hombre=the man). Additionally, almost all of the words for family members or professionals have both a masculine and a feminine version to reflect the gender identity of the person to which the words refer. For example, “la hija” is “the daughter, while “el hijo” is “the son.” “La enfermera” is a female nurse, and “el enfermero” is the male nurse. “La hermana” is “the sister,” and “el hermano” is “the brother.” “El contador” is “the male accountant,” and “la contadora” is “the female accountant.”
Unfortunately, the ability to reliably apply logic to the gendering of Spanish nouns pretty much ends there. There’s no obvious logical reason that “a street” (una calle) or “the war” (la guerra) should be feminine, and no logical reason that “the money” (el dinero) or “the floor” (el piso) should be masculine. Furthermore, there are some nouns whose gender defies all logic. For example, the word for “dress” is masculine (el vestido), while the word for “beard” is feminine (la barba). Even the word that means “masculinity” is feminine (la masculinidad), and the word for “uterus” is masculine (el útero)!
Luckily for us, there are some hard and fast rules to identify the gender of some nouns we encounter in Spanish, as well many looser guidelines that will help us in our learning. One of the most obvious generalizations that people learn early on is that most nouns that end in “o” are masculine, while most nouns that end in “a” are feminine. Some examples of feminine nouns that end in “a” include “la norma” (the rule/norm), “la mascota” (the pet), “la idea” (the idea), “la democracia” (the democracy), “la persona” (the person), “la cama” (the bed), and “la niña” (the girl). Some examples of masculine nouns that end in “o” are “el piso” (the floor), “el niño” (the boy), “el cerco” (the fence), “el techo” (the ceiling/roof), “el universo” (the universe) and “el cubierto” (the cover/piece of cutlery).
Of course, every guideline must have its exceptions. Many words that have been adapted from other languages such as Greek end in “a” and yet are masculine. Some examples are “el cometa” (the comet), “la planeta,”, el problema,” “el tema” (the topic/theme), “el crucigrama” (the crossword puzzle), and “el mapa.”
Compound words that look as if they may be plural or even feminine and plural are almost always masculine. Some examples include “el portarretratos” (this word come from the verb “portar,” to carry, with “retratos,” pictures, and means "the picture frame"), “el sacacorchos” (“sacar”=to remove, “corchos”=corks, meaning "the bottle opener"), “el sacapuntos” (the pencil sharpener), “el microondas” (the microwave), and “el lavaplatos/lavavajillas” (lavar=to wash, platos/vajillas=dishes, meaning "the dishwasher").
Just like there are masculine nouns that end in "a," there are some words that end in “o” that are feminine, such as “la mano,” meaning “the hand.” Some feminine words that end in “o” are actually just abbreviated versions of words that end in “a.” For example, “la foto” (the photo) is a shortened version of the word “fotografía,” and “la moto” (the motorcycle) is a shortened version of the word “motocicleta.”
Nouns that you can count on being feminine every time are those that end in “-ción,” “-tad,” or “-dad.” Some examples of words ending in “-ción” include “la nación” (the nation), “la población” (the population), “la acción” (the action), and “la sensación” (the sensation). Some words ending in “-dad” or “-tad” include “la universidad” (the university), “la amistad” (the friendship), “la ciudad” (the city), “la honestidad” (the honesty), “la fealdad” (the ugliness), and “la crueldad” (the cruelty).
Words ending in “-ín” or “ón” are reliably masculine (with the exception of specifically “-ción” nouns, which, as stated above, are feminine). Some masculine words that end in “-ín” include “el jardín” (the garden) and “el monopatín” (the skateboard), and some examples of words ending in “-ón” include “el cinturón” (the belt), “el avión” (the airplane), “el camión” (the truck/bus), “el mesón” (the countertop/bar/counter), and “el comilón” (the glutton—male).
To make the gendering of nouns in Spanish even more complicated is the existence of certain nouns that can be either masculine or feminine depending on their meaning. For example, the word “corte” means “court (of law)” when it is feminine (la corte), but when masculine (el corte) it means “the cut,” as in a cut of meat, haircut, or a wound. Other examples of these types of words include “el coma” (coma) y “la coma” (the comma); “el Papa” (the Pope) and “la papa” (the potato); “el cura” (the priest) and “la cura” (the cure); “el mañana” (tomorrow) and “la mañana” (the morning).
While this post is in no way meant to be an exhaustive list of rules and guidelines, it will hopefully provide you with some framework to begin understanding the gendering of nouns. You will undoubtedly run into many, many nouns that fit into none of the predictable categories outlined above, and unfortunately the only way to know if they are masculine or feminine is to hear them used, see them written in a sentence or to look them up. When using wordreference.com, you will easily be able to see if a noun is masculine or feminine by the little italic letters in blue directly to the right of the word—the letters nf mean the noun is feminine and the letters nm indicate that the word is masculine. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out, or simply write to me in the comments below. ¡Buena suerte en tus estudios!
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