Nouns
NOUNS
Pattern: Nouns represent people, places, things, and ideas. In Spanish, they express gender as well as number.
Definite Articles
In English, we only have one definite article: the.
Spanish has four different definite articles to help us know if there
is more than one thing being described, and if that thing or those
things are masculine or feminine. The Spanish definite articles are el, la, los and las.
If you have one masculine item, (like libro), we use el libro to say the book. If we have more than one book, we have to use the plural masculine article los to say the books (los libros).
The same is true for feminine nouns. We use la to talk about one feminine noun, and las if there is more than one.
Gender
All Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine. As a point of clarification, there are two kinds of gender in Spanish:
- Natural Gender
- Grammatical Gender.
Natural gender
This
kind of gender comes from the gender of the noun. If you are talking
about a male person, the noun will be masculine. If you are talking
about a female person, the noun will be feminine. For example, the
brother is “el hermano”, while the sister is “la hermana.”
This makes sense for nouns that represent boys and girls, but what
about nouns like book, table, necktie, and dress? It might not be as
simple as you think!
Grammatical Gender
This
kind of gender cannot come from the gender of the noun because most
nouns are not male or female. The reasons why certain nouns are
masculine and others are feminine are not perfectly clear. Take the
examples from the previous paragraph:
Book: El libro (masculine)
Table: La mesa (feminine)
Necktie: La corbata (feminine)
Dress: El vestido (masculine)
Books
and tables don't give any clues as to why they are masculine or
feminine. You might think that since men generally wear neckties that
they would be masculine. You might also think that since women
generally wear dresses that they would be feminine. You would be wrong
on both accounts.
Don't
despair, though! There are some simple patterns and rules to help
you. The following table is meant to help you understand when nouns are USUALLY masculine or feminine. Remember that there are exceptions to these patterns, and they are only meant as a general guide.
USUALLY MASCULINE
|
USUALLY FEMININE
| ||
Nouns ending in -o, -l, -n, -r, -s, -e
|
Nouns ending in -a, -d, -z, -ión, -ie, -mbre
| ||
Masculine
el libro
el papel
el plan
el favor
el mes
el traje
|
Exception
la mano
la piel
la sien
la flor
la tos
la leche
|
Feminine
la casa
la realidad
la vez
la tradición
la serie
la costumbre
|
Exception
el día
el césped
el lápiz
el avión
el pie
el alambre
|
Number
That
explains gender, but we have two more topics to cover before we are
done with nouns. First, let's talk about number. In English, a noun is
usually made plural by simply adding -s or -es. When we change a noun
from singular to plural in Spanish, we must consider a few things.
General Rule: Add -s to nouns ending in an unstressed vowel.
El perro ---> Los perros
La puerta ---> Las puertas
General Rule: Add -es to nouns ending in a consonant.
El animal ---> Los animales
El rey ---> Los reyes
General Rule: When nouns end in -z, change to -c and add -es.
La luz ---> Las luces
El lápiz ---> Los lápices
General Rule: For single-syllable words ending in -s, add -es.
El mes ---> Los meses
La tos ---> Las toses
el borrador-los borradores
el lápiz=los lápizes
Final note: There are times when the noun form does not change when it is plural. For example, the days of the week: el jueves ---> los jueves.
This is often because the word already ends in -s or -es. It should
be clear from the context of the sentence whether the noun is singular
or plural.
INDEFINITE ARTICLES Pattern: Indefinite articles determine that nouns are not specific.
Indefinite Articles
In English, we have three indefinite articles: a, an, and some.
Spanish has four indefinite articles to help us know if there is more
than one non-specific thing being described and if that thing or those
things are masculine or feminine. The Spanish indefinite articles are un, una, unos, and unas.
If you have one masculine item, (like libro), we use un libro to say a book. If we have more than one book, we have to use the plural masculine article unos to say some books (unos libros).
The same is true for feminine nouns. We use una to talk about one feminine noun, and unas if there is more than one.
Examples:
un libro
|
a book, one book
|
unos libros
|
some books
|
una clase
|
a class, one class
|
unas clases
|
some classes
|
