For 15 years we've taught Spanish to hundreds of thousands of learners. When we have 2 or more nouns with different genre (one is masculine and the other one is feminine), and there is 1 adjective used to describe both of them, the genre of this adjective will be masculine. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. You can use the word that best fits a noun to determine if it's masculine or feminine. Fish are very pretty. #RAEconsultas Although vacaciones is the majority use, the singular vacacin is also correct: la vacacin veraniega (P. Lan Entralgo). Be careful since you may fall into a trap of gender thinking. vacation Noun 1. Here there are some examples: El cuento (tale) La cuenta (account, sum). Some examples include: These rules can help you most of the time to determine if the noun is masculine, but they won't always work. All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine. Sometimes the word just breaks the rules, and we have to memorize that they are different, such as la mano (hand). Have you tried it yet? Men wish that they had been warriors, or are proud that they once were. The same goes for nouns ending with -or: el amor, el dolor, el error, el sabor, etc. One of the first things that Spanish students learn is that most Spanish nouns that end in -o are masculine and most that end in -a are feminine. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Copyright Curiosity Media, Inc., a division of IXL Learning All Rights Reserved. Como La Flor, by Selena. Browse Spanish translations from Spain, Mexico, or any other Spanish-speaking country. Thats why agua, a feminine noun, in singular is el agua. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. However, there are certain words whose endings are unalterable. Also, in plural they keep the feminine definite article (las), because the S avoids the cacophony: las aguas. Los nios juegan en el parque. La disco is short for la discoteca, andla foto is short forla fotografa. Animals With Irregular Masculine And Feminine Forms. -Tud, like in the word actitud (attitude) is also a common ending for feminine nouns. When working as adjectives, numbers have to agree in gender and number with the noun they are modifying. La parte - the part. As you learned before, many Spanish masculine words end with -n. Uncle and aunt, for example, are el to andla ta. Ese color es bonito. This means that most Spanish adjectives will change their gender to match the noun. man, dog, house). vacation translate: vacances [feminine, plural], vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacances, passer des. The adjective ending in Spanish always depends on the noun it modifies. Estas manzanas estn muy agrias. We know that a person can be a man or a woman. Lucia has very nice qualities. Here we will explain the rules, and then the 3 categories of exceptions: Below are a number of words you would think should be la according to the rules above, but they are el, as they are exceptions to the el/la rules. The same thing in the other direction the rules say it should be el, but the word is actually la. Now lets see how to know if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish when talking about people and animals. Soy Daniela Sanchez, Ive taught Spanish in Mexico to a wide array of foreigners. Sometimes the word is the same and we can only figure out the meaning with the articles or pronouns that go with them: El capital (money) La capital (capital city), El editorial (editorial) La editorial (publisher), El pendiente (earring) La pendiente (slope). The masculine form is the one that appears on a dictionary. Youve probably heard this one before: words ending in -a are feminine and words ending in -o are masculine. Most Spanish masculine nouns end in "o". Soccer is very boring. Here is a quick overview of the topics well cover: By the end of this article, youll have a more solid understanding of how Spanish gender works. They wish that they were in love now. Key Takeaways: Spanish Noun Gender Nouns ending in -a, -cin, -a, or -dad are usually feminine. Or el agua in singular, while las aguas in plural. For instance, a cat can be el gato (masculine) or la . The general rule is that Spanish nouns that end in -a are feminine. The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. We know that all people have gender, but in Spanish all nouns have gender. For instance, when the word for a person or occupation ends in -e. When occupations end in -a it gets messy. Equal Opportunity Employment Program The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre hires on the basis of merit and is strongly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion within its community. Nuestros perros son pequeos. Pink is my favorite color. This semester is really tough. You could possibly sayel tortugo to refer to a male turtle, but it might get you a weird look or two. (in summer) a. veranear Copyright 2006 Harrap Publishers Limited vacation noun 1 especially (Britain) (Jur) receso (m) vacacional (formal); periodo (m) vacacional The name Isaac means 'he will laugh.'. hand From Latin manus (" hand " ). The last three of them are actually abbreviations of feminine compound words: la radiofona, la motocicleta, la fotografa. This attribute allows us to classify words as either masculine or feminine. Some of the exceptions occur because of how the words were treated in other languages, such as Latin and Greek. Discover word endings used for feminine and masculine nouns in Spanish, explore exceptions,. While some exceptions (like la mano) are just exceptions, many words that seemingly end in -o are actually shortenings of other words. Not only in Spanish, but also in other Romance and non-Romance languages, such as German and Russian. and the Spanish Civil War failed in reality to place him in a distinctly different camp from Chamberlain and . El plato es blanco con rayas azules. And of course, they are all derived from the isms of the previous rule. Este semestre est bien pesado. Tu vecina es muy ruidosa. Part of Paglia's understanding of men's and women's sexual "personae" is shaped by Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian polarity: The former represents the masculine impulse for stoic order and rationality, while the latter represents the feminine drive toward ecstatic, bodily revelry and the chaotic, unpredictable forces of the natural world. If you have the word for friend, it refers to a person correct? An intransitive verb is one that does not require a direct object (e.g. Otherwise, it would sound like laaagua. With these rules below, you'll know which to use with every word "el" or "la". The ending -a is a good indicator that youre most likely dealing with a feminine Spanish word. The general rule is that words ending with -o are masculine and words ending with -a are feminine. However, with some specific nouns (especially when we talk about professions) we do replace the -e with an -a, and both forms are correct: El presidente -> La presidente / La presidenta. vacation translate: vacances [feminine, plural], vacances [feminine, plural], passer ses vacances, vacances, passer des. I like the pink dress. Masculine Nouns Here are some of the letters that we usually see at the end of masculine words. Ests muy estresado; necesitas irte de vacaciones. Colors are always masculine, even if they end with -a: el rojo, el negro, el azul, el naranja, el prpura, etc. This can be confusing, especially when some words, like persona (person), can refer to a person that is man or a woman. Nouns ending with -a are usually feminine: la mesa, la cama, la casa, la palabra, etc. SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldn't trust them fully. In any case, if a word has any of the following endings you can be absolutely sure that it is masculine. Two other endings for feminine nouns are -dad / -tad, like in felicidad (happiness) and amistad (friendship). I hope this helps. Origin adjectives express where people or things come from. For instance, a table (la mesa) is feminine, while a desk (el escritorio) is masculine. The journalist works all day. Privacy | Terms of Use. La luz es bastante brillante. Let's look at the word persona (person) to help explain this idea. 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Search millions of Spanish-English example sentences from our dictionary, TV shows, and the internet. The dentists are very young. El nino y el gato. Check these examples of sentences with colors in Spanish: El rosa es mi color preferido. It is basically just a sign of respect. link to Venir Conjugation 101: Conjugate Venir In Spanish, link to Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. For those interested in a little history, masculine Spanish nouns that end in-ta,-pa and-ma tend to come from Greek originally. Singapore is very expensive. ). I love smoked salmon. In some cases, you will be able to tell the gender of a word based on the ending of the word itself. And its true that theres no logical way to divide the world into masculine and feminine. When talking about people, animals and occupations things get a bit blurry. Masculine nouns are used with articles like el or un and have adjectives that end in -o, while female nouns use the articles la or una and have adjectives that end in -a. Masculine forms. Every single noun in Spanish has a gender: feminine or masculine. One other common word that ends in -a but that is masculine is the word el da (day). Mi primo tambin es inteligente. Think youve got it? When using demonstrative pronouns (esta, esa, aquella) with these words, they stay feminine. The grammatical gender is an arbitrary classification that divides nouns into two types: masculines or feminines. Unfortunately, there are not as many rules to know whether a noun in Spanish is masculine. A lot of irregular forms happen among farm animals, for the same reason that English has a different word for cow and bull. The gender affects their role on the farm, so having different words comes in handy. I like the red bag more. That means you have to know when to use El or La for every single noun. Usted is used to speak in a more professional manner. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Nouns that end with -ma, -pa, -ta, or any of the letters in the word LONERS are usually masculine. Passive Voice in Spanish: Examples & Practice, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, What are Cognates in Spanish? If the occupation ends in -a it tends not to change. I hope you find what youre looking for here during your journey into Espaol . And it gets easier with time and practice. Spanish Survival Kit: Asking for Directions [2022]. In both theFluenz online programand the Fluenz Spanish Immersions, we take it one step at a time. Dolphins are adorable. Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. Which brings us to the only exception to these rules! Adjectives that end with an -e or a consonant cannot be modified to express the Spanish grammatical gender. During the day Im a freelancer and marketer, while at night Im here writing for students of the world wide web looking to learn Spanish. Even if the nouns are in singular! This is a little more complicated but my recommendation is to learn the more common words in a first moment. My horse is black and my mare brown. Those singers are Spanish. In Spanish, the masculine form of these animals almost always takes precedence. The letters of the alphabet are feminine: la a, la be, la ce, la de, etc. A few of the most common ones are: Any words that are actually a shorter form of a longer word. There are some words that end with -o, -ma, -pa, -ta, or LONERS that are feminine. After all, how can you know if problema and mano are feminine or masculine? Dialogues in Spanish - English on 123dialogues channel: https://www.youtube.com/123dialogues Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youstudyspanishBlog: http://y. There are three genders in Spanish: masculine, feminine, and neutral. Join the Tell Me In Spanish community and get a copy of my step-by-step Spanish Learners Roadmaps and tricky synonyms & vocab cheat sheets. Nouns ending in -cin, -sin, -dad, -tad and -tud are feminine: la cancin, relacin, la televisin, la expresin, la ciudad, la verdad, la libertad, la amistad, la solicitud, la juventud, etc. 2. The opposite time of day, la noche (night), is feminine, so you can think of them as a pair. las vacaciones de Navidad, las vacaciones de Pascua, las vacaciones de verano. Some examples are hijo (son), zapato (shoe) and mono (monkey). La torre - the tower. I desperately need a vacation! Be one of them! Lingua Linkup. Please check your email and click the link to confirm your subscription - gracias! Spanish also has four forms of the indefinite article that correspond to the words a/an and some/any in English. Professions also refer to people, but are kind of their own subset. There is one other ending that ends in -a, -ista, that is actually both feminine and masculine. Most adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. Here are the exceptions to this rule. Also, notice that there are masculine nouns that end in -l, -z, and -n. I would recommend you learn the following by heart. The following words are feminine when plural, but when they are singular, these words are masculine: Another exception is that the el or la can change the context of the word: Online Spanish Tutors - Native Speakers. In Spanish, some nouns use different words for the masculine and feminine forms. So, its important to memorize the feminine words that end with the consonant z. When using adjectives to describe a person, use the gender that the person identifies with. However, this doesnt mean that all words that end with an -a are feminine. Hay un frente fro en la ciudad. Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. Got all that? Nouns with other endings, such as other consonants, usually need to be memorized. The noun is called "de gnero comn" (common gender) when with the same termination it may . His shoes are very expensive. Probar is an O to UE stem-changing verb. With these nouns in singular, the indefinite article (un/una) is masculine, too: un aula, un guila, etc. Time to dive into a topic that combines grammar and etiquette. NEWMAGICFOR THE NEWAGE Daring to challenge old stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding magical practice, New Millenni. *Note: la moto and la foto are a shortened version of the feminine words motocicleta and fotografa. Very often our students at Fluenz get genders mixed A noun is a word referring to a person, animal, place, thing, feeling or idea (e.g. Take Note: To pluralize these Spanish words, you must change the -z for the ending -ces. El frica El Agua- Las Agua (plural) the waters In fact, a few masculine words also end with this vowel. The standard rules are here on the top of the page, but you shouldnt trust them fully. Memorizing just the exceptions will be a lot easier than memorizing every single word in the Spanish language. Access millions of accurate translations written by our team of experienced English-Spanish translators. However, in certain situations, changing the gender of a noun can also change its meaning, as you can see in the graphic and examples below: Mi mam tiene un cerezo. The truth can be painful. Este silln es muy cmodo. As you can see, there are adjectives that follow the regular rule for endings using -o/-as/-os/-as (rojo, amarillo, negro, blanco, morado). Here's what's included: Get conjugations, examples, and pronunciations for millions of words and phrases in Spanish and English. However, on top of its irregularities, this verb also has E to I and E to IE stem changes in certain tenses. Days and months are masculine: el lunes, el mircoles, el sbado, este abril, ese enero, etc. For living things (such as people and animals), the grammatical gender is associated with the biological gender: El perro de Luis es blanco. In many cases, the worst that can happen to you is that your Spanish will not sound very good: La problema es que no tengo tiempo. Its the same for words ending with -a: el/la espa, el/la polica, el/la gua. Since it can be challenging to conjugate, well Probar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Probar in Spanish. Create your account. This name is also derived from the Hebrew name Yitzhak which means ' one who rejoices.'. Why? If the noun is masculine and singular, use the masculine, singular ending (usually - o ). places and ideas. Dictionaries always indicate the grammatical gender of a noun! I am going to travel to Mexico during summer vacation. Comment *document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "afd5b14b53088abe26398d903d076933" );document.getElementById("a465f5e1c1").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. -Fue un lunes, -Ha sido un septiembre hmedo -Nac en el 84 -Son las cinco y cuarto -Poner los puntos sobre las es -La hache delante de la 'a' es muda One of the first things that Spanish students learn is that most Spanish nouns that end in -o are masculine and most that end in -a are feminine. The Philippines (/ f l p i n z / (); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. LONERS - words that end with any of the letters in LONERS are usually masculine. When describing a masculine noun like "Amigo", we must use a masculine adjective as well, such as "Honesto". Spanish Nouns That Can Be Both Masculine And Feminine While most nouns refer to objects and concepts that don't have gender, there are also the nouns that do. This means that every time you use a noun, you must express whether its a feminine or masculine word. La verdad puede ser dolorosa. Names of lakes, oceans, seas, and rivers. Te lo has pasado bien en las vacaciones? While most nouns that end with a particular consonant or vowel are generally classified as either masculine or feminine, nouns that end with z do not follow a guideline. This is a feminine word because it is a short form of the longer word, la motocicleta. We use the masculine definite article (el) in singular with feminine nouns that start with an A when the stress is put on the first syllable. However, the gender in Spanish language can be really tricky sometimes. The dish is white with blue stripes. In . is vacation in spanish masculine or feminine. Beware of exceptions! Get a Step-by-Step Map to Learning Spanish. If a color is working as a Spanish adjective, it will need to change its gender to agree with the noun unless such a color ends with a consonant or -e. As you can see, most of them are nouns used to describe a persons profession or occupation: And here are some examples of what you can do to mark the gender of these words: [Masculine or feminine determiner] + [noun]+ (adjective). The judge is always on time. But that is also the beauty of a language, and the fact that it is alive and evolving is one of the elements that I find personally interesting. 250 words that are the same in English and Spanish, Spanish words that are similar to English words, its not really incorrect to use the feminine form. Within the Fluenz team, amongst us who Spanish is our first language we still have numerous discussions onwhether certain words are masculine or feminine. vacacin ( bah - kah - syohn ) feminine noun 1. However your friend is a hypochondriac and you need to assure him/her everything is going to be fine. When referring to people or animals, most of the time Spanish nouns can be transformed into feminine words by simply replacing the -o with an -a. Me gusta el vestido rosa. We know, we know, the exceptions are very frustrating. But then you find out that its la foto, not el foto. Why? Remember that nouns that end with z do not follow a default gender guideline. The name is thought to have acquired this meaning as communities in the time of Sarah and Abraham thought it to be hysterical that they were to have a child at such an elderly age. Exceptions: el mapa, el da, el planeta, el sof, el problema, el tema, el sistema, el idioma, el drama, etc. 2. el clima (the weather) Nouns ending in -o, an accented vowel, -or, or -aje are usually masculine. To put it in simple terms, if youre working with a Spanish masculine noun, you must make sure its modifiers are also masculine. 08, 2020, https://lingualinkup.com/el-la-spanish/, Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions. Be aware that these guidelines are not set in stone, and there are some exceptions that youll need to memorize. For example, la mano (hand) & el da (day). La casa blanca es muy bonita.The white house is very pretty. Is vacation in Spanish masculine or feminine? Sofa es muy inteligente. El vestidor est ocupado. Even though Spanish is a language of exceptions, there are a few guidelines that can help when wanting to determine if a noun is feminine or masculine. 1) For example, the days (el da), months (el mes), and years (el ao) are masculine; while letters of the alphabet (la letra) and the hours (la hora) of the day are feminine. Generally, if the masculine form ends with an -o, to form the feminine you just need to replace it with an -a: If the masculine form ends witn a consonant, to form the feminine we just add an -a: They usually have the same form for masculine and feminine: el/la estudiante, el/la cantante, el/la agente, el/la paciente, etc. These apples are very sour. Todava me quedan das de vacaciones antes de que termine el ao. Im always glad to reach and help more people around the world. Example 1: We said all words ending in -a are feminine. Collins Complete Spanish Electronic Dictionary HarperCollins Publishers 2011. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Tu casa es grande y bonita. Here are the common endings for feminine words: The ending -a is usually feminine, just like -o is masculine. There are some questions well never really know the answer to. Then little by little you will learn the others. The man sneezed.). As we mention in the masculine section, many words that end in-e are masculine. According to the standard rules, you would think the opposite, but as youll see in the exceptions below, youll learn the nuances with the Spanish language. Nouns in Spanish can be either feminine or masculine, and this distinction can often seem illogical to people who don't speak Spanish. La comida estuvo muy rica. (Administration) vacancy vacances plural feminine noun holidays pluriel (Brit) holiday (Brit) vacation (USA) les grandes vacances the summer holidays (Brit) the summer vacation (USA) prendre des vacances to take a holiday (Brit) to take a vacation (USA) prendre ses vacances to take one's holidays (Brit) to take one's vacation (USA) This is why despite how difficult it is to learn Spanish, we are confident there is a realistic and achievable path to fluency. A common mistake made by Spanish learners is to confuse the number one, uno, with un, which means a/an. Nuestro coche est sucio. Encarga doscientas galletas.Order two hundred cookies. by Mgomezhernandez. Masculine and Feminine in Spanish (el & la): The Rules & Their Many Exceptions.
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