1.3: Los sustantivos y los artículos

Nouns and articles

Nouns

Nouns identify people, animals, places, and things. In Spanish, all nouns have gender (masculine or feminine), and number (singular or plural).

Nouns referring to people who are males or females are easy to categorize by gender:

Masculine	English	Feminine	English
el hombre	man	la mujer	woman
el chico	boy	la chica	girl
el muchacho	boy	la muchacha	girl
el profesor	professor	la profesora	professor
el señor	Mr.; sir	la señora	Mrs.; Madam

Some nouns referring to people have identical masculine and feminine forms. The article indicates the gender of these words:

Masculine	English	Feminine	English
el joven	young man	la joven	young woman
el estudiante	student (male)	la estudiante	student (female)
el turista	tourist (male)	la turista	tourist (female)

Some nouns referring to animals by default will use either the masculine or feminine definite article ("el" or "la"). In this case, to specify whether we are referring to a male or female "animal", we need to use the words "macho" (male), and "hembra" (female):

Default	English	Default	English
el chimpancé	chimpanzee	la abeja	bee
el canguro	kangaroo	la araña	spider
el gusano	worm	la ardilla	squirrel
el gorila	gorilla	la ballena	whale
el pez	fish	la mariposa	butterfly
el rinoceronte	rhinoceros	la serpiente	serpent
el sapo	toad	la jirafa	giraffe
el tiburón	shark	la rana	frog

Examples:
el canguro macho; el canguro hembra; los canguros machos; los canguros hembras
la ballena macho; la ballena hembra; las ballenas machos; las ballenas hembras

It is harder to understand nouns that refer to places and things. Here are some guidelines that may help, but they do not apply to all of the nouns, they all have exceptions. Because of this, it is best to always learn the noun with its corresponding article to remember whether it is masculine or feminine.

General guidelines for nouns referring to places and things

In the following list of examples, the endings of nouns are in bold.

1. Most nouns that end in -o, -ma, -pa, -ta, -l, -n, -r and -s, are masculine.
2. Most nouns that end in -a, -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, -sis, -itis, and -z are feminine.
3. Nouns that end in -e can be either masculine or feminine.

Masculine	English	Feminine	English	Exceptions	English	Exceptions	English
el libro	book	la escuela	school	la mano	hand	el día	day
el problema	problem	la lección	lesson	la foto	photo	el alerta	alert
el mapa	map	la televisión	television (station)	la suma	sum	el camión	truck
el planeta	planet	la comunidad	community	la sopa	soup	el césped	grass (lawn)
el estante	shelf	la clase	class	la chaqueta	jacket	la análisis	analysis
el papel	paper	la libertad	liberty	la miel	honey	el lápiz	pencil
el examen	exam	la dosis	dose	la imagen	image	el arroz	rice
el color	color	la artritis	arthritis	la flor	flower
el autobús	bus	la luz	light	la tos	cough

Some nouns have a different meaning depending on whether they are masculine or feminine:

Masculine	English	Feminine	English
el capital	capital (money)	la capital	capital (city)
el cólera	cholera	la cólera	anger
el coma	coma	la coma	comma
el cometa	comet	la cometa	kite
el corte	cut (fabric)	la corte	court (judicial; king's/queen's)
el cura	priest	la cura	cure
el frente	front	la frente	forehead
el mañana	tomorrow	la mañana	morning
el orden	order (arrangement)	la orden	order (command)
el papa	pope	la papa	potato
el parte	message, report	la parte	part, portion
el pendiente	earring; errand	la pendiente	hill or slope
el pez	fish	la pez	tar
el radio	radius, radium	la radio	radio (some say 'el radio')

Articles

As mentioned above, it is best to learn the nouns with its corresponding article. There are four forms that are equivalent to the English definite article "the". The same goes for the indefinite article: a, an, or some.

Definite Articles: Indefinite Articles:

Number	Masculine	Feminine	Number	Masculine	Feminine
singular	el papel	la clase	singular	un papel	una clase
plural	los papeles	las clases	plural	unos papeles	unas clases

Plural of nouns

To form the plural of a noun that ends in a vowel by simply adding "-s".

For nouns ending in a consonant, add "-es". If the consonant is the letter "z", change the "z" to "c" before adding "-es".

Singular	→	Plural
la clase	→	las clases
el papel	→	los papeles
la luz	→	las luces

In general, the accent mark of a singular noun must be also used when forming into a plural noun unless the accent mark is on the last syllable of the singular noun.

Singular	→	Plural
el lápiz	→	los lápices
el autobús	→	los autobuses
la lección	→	las lecciones

The masculine plural form is also used when the group there is a masculine noun is a mixed-gender group:

1 muchacho + 2 muchachas = 3 muchachos OR los muchachos

Gender-neutral individuals

Spanish has always been viewed as a highly gendered language because it is a "Romance Language" (mostly derived from Latin). This is not to say that it denies the existence of gender-neutral identities rather the nature of the language itself makes it hard to adapt systematically to account them. While there is a movement to use terms such as Latinx, the “x” is not currently used in sentence structures and is not yet widely used outside of the United States. Some Spanish-speaking communities have also adopted the use of –e endings instead of –o or –a endings on gendered nouns, articles, and adjectives but this is not a unanimously accepted solution since this would mean a total change for the language itself. This is an ongoing conversation, therefore if you identify yourself as a gender-neutral individual, it would be beneficial for you to initiate a conversation with your instructor to discuss ways that you can use the language to best describe yourself.