Gender of nouns in Spanish

• All nouns have a gender.
• The gender of nouns affects which article is used and any adjectives that describe it.
• There are rules in Spanish to help work out the likely gender of nouns.

Watch the video to understand more about the gender of nouns in Spanish and masculine and feminine forms.

Usually, nouns that end in o are masculine and nouns that end in a are feminine.

For example:

There are some exceptions to this rule.

For example, the following nouns end in a but are all masculine:

planeta - planet

día - day

mapa - map

tranvía - tram

The following nouns end in o but are feminine:

mano - hand

foto - photo

radio - radio

Nouns referring to jobs and ending in o are masculine. They can be made feminine by changing the o at the end of the noun to an a.

For example:

Mi padre es abogado. - My father is a lawyer.

Mi madre es abogada. - My mother is a lawyer.

Nouns referring to jobs and ending in or are masculine. They can be made feminine by adding a to the end of the word.

For example:

El profesor tiene mucho talento. - The (male) teacher is very talented.

La profesora tiene mucho talento. - The (female) teacher is very talented.

Nouns referring to jobs and ending in ista never change and are the same in both the masculine and feminine forms.

For example:

El artista tiene mucha fama. - The (male) artist is very famous.

La artista tiene mucha fama. - The (male) artist is very famous.

Masculine nouns generally end in o. There are other nouns that do not end in o that are also masculine. There are some rules to help you.

1. Nouns ending in ma are usually masculine.

For example:

problema - problem

programa - programme

idioma - language

2. Nouns ending in a consonant other than d or z are usually masculine.

For example:

árbol - tree

color - colour

país - country

Feminine nouns generally end in a. There are other nouns that do not end in a that are also feminine. There are some rules to help you.

1. Nouns ending in d are usually feminine. For example:

salud - health

igualdad - equality

nacionalidad - nationality

2. Nouns ending in z are usually feminine. For example:

voz - voice

nariz - nose

Note that arroz, meaning rice, ends in z but is masculine.

3. Nouns ending in ión are usually feminine. For example:

religión - religion

natación - swimming

aplicación - application

There are some exceptions to the rules described above. It can be hard to tell if some nouns with other endings are masculine or feminine.

For example, nouns ending in e could be either masculine, for example hombre (man) or feminine, for example leche (milk).

If in doubt, it’s better to check in a dictionary than to guess.

Practise what you've learned about the gender of nouns in Spanish with this quiz.

Watch the video for more information about how to use masculine and feminine genders in Spanish.

Now you have learned about the gender of nouns in Spanish why not explore articles in Spanish?