Overview
One of the hardest things for people to get used to when learning Spanish is the idea that nouns (people, places, animals, things, ideas, and feelings) have a gender (male, female). There is always a question of "How can a table be feminine?" and "How can a book be masculine?" This doesn’t mean that the table or the book is physically feminine or masculine, but in a grammatical sense, the ending is. Why is gender so important in Spanish? Well, if a noun is masculine, then its descriptive adjectives and articles will also need to be masculine. In order to describe something accurately, an adjective must match a noun in both gender and number. For example:
La manzana es roja.
The apple is red.
El plátano es amarillo.
The banana is yellow.
Knowing the gender of a noun allows you to describe it using adjectives correctly and also use the correct articles when you have to. By far, the best way to determine the gender of a noun is to look it up in a dictionary. If you don't have a dictionary available, there are a few general observations you can use below, but these are not rules! They are just clues for when you don't have a dictionary. So let’s talk about some general ways to recognize if a noun is masculine or feminine.
Masculine Nouns
Most masculine nouns end in -o. Ending in an -o can indicate that a person or animal is male, or just an object, idea, etc. that is grammatically masculine.
Common Masculine Noun that End in -O
el cartero
mailman/postman
el niño
child/son
el tío
uncle
el teatro
theater
el dormitorio
bedroom
For All Those Masculine Nouns that Don't End in -O...
If a word ends in -e, an accented vowel (-á, -é, -í, -ó, -ú), -ma, or a consonant other than -d, -z, or -ión, it's usually masculine. Note that not all words ending in -ma are masculine. Some, like forma (form), are feminine.
Ending Examples
-e el perfume , el estante , el maquillaje
accented vowel el colibrí , el ají , el ñandú
consonant (except -d, -z, and -ión) el árbol , el rumor , el cojín
-ma el programa , el drama , el idioma
Borrowing From Greek!
A lot of nouns that end in -ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine because they are Greek in origin.
And the exceptions...
These nouns may look like they have a masculine ending, but they are actually feminine. No rules here, just memorization.
-o -e consonants that aren't -d nor -z
la foto
la llave
la miel
la mano
la calle
la sal
la moto
la fiebre
la hiel
la libido
la carne
la piel
la radio
la frase
la coliflor
la polio
la gente
la sor
la virago
la nieve
la labor
la noche
la flor
la nube
la sangre
la suerte
la tarde
la muerte
la madre
la base
la clase
la clave
la corriente
la fuente
la llave
la sede
la serpiente
la torre
Feminine Nouns
Most feminine nouns end in -a. Ending in an -a indicates that a person or animal is female or that an object, idea, etc. is grammatically feminine.
Common Feminine Nouns that End in -A
la enfermera
nurse
la profesora
teacher
la hija
daughter
la rosa
rose
la guitarra
guitar
la piscina
pool
For All Those Feminine Nouns That Don't End in -A...
If it ends in -d, -z, or ión, it's also feminine.
Ending Examples
-d la felicidad , la virtud , la salud
-z la paz , la nariz , la luz
-ión la canción , la religión , la irritación
And the exceptions...
These nouns look like they have feminine endings, but are grammatically masculine. Memorize these!
-a -d -z -ión
el drama
el huésped
el aprendiz
el ansión
el enigma
el ataúd
el cáliz
el roción
el esquema
el abad
el arroz
el notición
el estigma
el alud
el pez
el sentención
el estratega
el áspid
el lápiz
el idioma
el laúd
el ajedrez
el mapa
el récord
el antifaz
el morfema
el milord
el maíz
el planeta
el césped
el albornoz
el problema
el avestruz
el sistema
el altavoz
el tema
el altramuz
el día
el arroz
el aroma
el barniz
el axioma
el cariz
el buda
el disfraz
el carisma
el haz
el clima
el matiz
el diagrama
el dilema
el fantasma
el panda
el prisma
