Gender of Spanish Nouns

Free Spanish Lessons

Nouns define persons, places, things, and ideas. They answers the questions Who, Where, and What?

Who? Sally, the doctor, dog
Where? the church, Paris, outerspace
What? iron, ball, chair

In Spanish, nouns are either feminine or masculine. A nuetral form does not exist in Spanish. Gender can be determined through a set of rules and some memorization for those nouns for which the rules do not apply.

Rule 1:
Masculine nouns generally end in -o.
Feminine nouns generally end in -a.

This rule is easily understood by its application to Spanish names. For example, Rosa is a female and therefore her name ends in the feminine letter "a". Pablo is a male and therefore his name ends in the masculine letter "o". However, there is almost always an exception to any grammar rule. For example, Amparo is a female name that ends in "o". This is where memorization comes into play.

Although it is useful to think of people's gender to understand noun gender, there is no way to know the noun gender of inanimate objects such as books, cars, computers, and stones without knowing the Spanish translation.

• book - libro (masculine)


• car - carro (masculine)


• computer - computadora (feminine)


• stone - piedra (feminine)

We know that "libro" and "carro" are masculine because they both end in "o" and we know that "computadora" is feminine because it ends in "a".

Masculine Nouns:

• escritorio - desk


• teléfono - telephone


• anillo - ring


• cabello - hair


• plátano - banana

Feminine Nouns:

• camisa - shirt


• naranja - orange


• silla - chair


• playa - beach


• pelota - ball

Spanish is a highly complex language and all nouns do not end in just -o or -a. There are many different endings that can determine the gender of nouns.

Rule 2:
Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -gión, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre, -ez, -triz, -e, -z, and -d are generally feminine.

• televisión - television


• habitación - room


• región - region


• universidad - university


• dificultad - difficulty


• sctitud - attitude


• costumbre - custom


• validez - validity


• actriz - actress


• fuente - fountain


• pared - wall


• paz - peace

Rule 3:
Nouns that end in -ma, -ta, and -pa are generally masculine.

• programa - program


• sistema - system


• planeta - planet


• cometa - comet


• mapa - map

Rule 4:
Some nouns can be either masculine or feminine according to their meaning. For example, "la policia" means "the policeman" and "el policia" means "the police force".

Feminine Meaning:

• la papa - the potatoe


• la cura - the cure


• la capital - the capital city


• la pendiente - the hill or slope


• la frente - forehead


• la corte - court


• la final - the sports final


• la coma - the comma

Masculine Meaning:

• el papa - the Pope


• el cura - the priest


• el capital - the capital


• el pendiente - the earring


• el frente - the front


• el corte - the cut


• el final - the end


• el coma - the coma

Rule 5:
Some nouns can be either masculine or feminine depending on the context. These nouns generally refer to people and their meanings do not change according to which gender is used.

• dentista - dentist


• modelo - model


• cliente - client


• aristocrata - aristocrat


• idiota - idiot

Rule 6:
There are exceptions to the rules. Unfortunately, you
must memorize these nouns.

Masculine Exceptions:

• sofá - sofa


• gorila - gorilla


• día - day


• arroz - rice


• lápiz - pencil


• pez - fish

Feminine Exceptions:

• mano - hand


• cama - bed


• mujer - woman


• broma - joke


• sal - salt


• ley - law


• miel - honey


• piel - skin


• imagen - image


• flor - flower