The easiest way to learn Spanish EVER!

I'm a senior at Liberty High School in Kentucky, and so I have to have some language credits before I can graduate. Well, since the only language they offer at my school is Spanish, I had to take that. Personally, I had never wanted to take Spanish, as I'm already learning three other languages - Japanese, Chinese and Korean- but, as the class is an e-school class, I figured maybe I can just pretend and fly through the course. When I first logged into the eschool, I noticed that they use Rocket Spanish as one of their tools. I had heard of Rocket Languages before, and had bought their Rocket Japanese, which didn't disappoint. Rocket Spanish doesn't disappoint either, just doing the first lesson I was already hooked, and totally forgot all of my apprehension about learning Spanish. Rocket Languages makes learning Spanish easy, and most importantly, fun!

A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea.

Person: John, girl, dentist
Place: garden, university, Venezuela
Thing: book, car, tomato
Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine:

El Chico - Boy
El Jardin - Garden
El Libro - Book
El Miedo - Fear

Feminine:

La Chica - Girl
La Universidad - University
La Revista - Magazine
La Libertad - Liberty

The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female.

Man > Woman
Tiger > Tigress
Aviator > Aviatrix

The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures.

el gato
male cat
la gata
female cat
el perro
male dog
la perra
female dog
el chico
boy
la chica
girl
el abuelo
grandfather
la abuela
grandmother

How are all of these masculine nouns alike?

el gato
el perro
el chico
el abuelo

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

How are all of these feminine nouns alike?

la gata
la perra
la chica
la abuela

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

"El" and "la" both mean "the."

el chico (the boy)
la chica (the girl)

el perro (the male dog)
la gata (the female cat)

Note: These two words (el, la) are called "definite articles." You will learn more about them in a later lesson.

What do you notice about the last letter of these nouns?
Masculine Feminine
gato gata
perro perra
chico chica
abuelo abuela

Nouns that end in -o are usually masculine. Nouns that end in -a are usually feminine. Notice the word usually! There are exceptions to these two rules and you will soon be learning them.

One cannot predict the gender of a noun that stands for a non-living thing. Try to predict whether the Spanish words for the following things are masculine or feminine:

Masculine or feminine?

book
house
money
window

One cannot predict the gender of a noun, except in the case of living creatures. Do not try to analyze the nature of the object, looking for some inherent masculinity or femininity. It won't work!

Take a guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "dress" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be feminine, since a dress is an article of clothing worn by females.

Actually, the word for "dress" is a masculine word:

el vestido

Take another guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "necktie" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be masculine, since a necktie is an article of clothing worn by males.

Actually, the word for "necktie" is a feminine word:

la corbata

When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la). There are several reasons for this:

* Because you cannot predict the gender of most nouns.
* Because not every noun that ends in -o is masculine, and not every noun that ends in -a is feminine.
* Because many nouns end in letters other than o or a.
* Because the definite article (el, la) is your clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

Why do you care whether a noun is masculine or feminine?

Good question! As you shall see in upcoming lessons, Spanish places a great deal more emphasis on gender than does English.

Notes:

1. The written lesson is below.
2. Links to quizzes, tests, etc. are to the left.

Masculine nouns that end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in -a.

el profesor
la profesora

el doctor
la doctora

el señor
la señora

Some nouns that refer to people use the same form for both masculine and feminine. These nouns indicate gender by the article (el or la).

el estudiante
la estudiante

el pianista
la pianista

el artista
la artista

Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine.

la televisión
la decisión
la conversación
la habitación
la ciudad
la universidad
la dificultad
la libertad
la actitud
la gratitud
la certidumbre
la muchedumbre

Some nouns that end in -a are masculine.

el problema
el telegrama
el programa
el mapa
el sistema
el poema
el día
el tema
el clima
el idioma
el sofá
el planeta

Many nouns that end in -ma are masculine. Notice that eight of the twelve nouns listed above end in -ma.

el telegrama
el programa
el problema
el sistema
el poema
el idioma
el clima
el tema

Note: A few nouns that end in -ma are feminine, such as la cama and la pluma.

Four of the nouns that end in -a are simply exceptions and must be memorized.

el día
el mapa
el planeta
el sofá

A few nouns that end in -o are feminine.

la mano
la radio

Review of the rules learned in lesson 1 and lesson 2.

* Many nouns that denote living things have both a masculine and a feminine form.
* Most nouns that end in -o are masculine.
* Most nouns that end in -a are feminine.
* Masculine nouns that end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in -a.
* Some nouns that refer to people use the same form for both masculine and feminine. These nouns indicate gender by the article (el or la).
* Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine.
* Many nouns that end in -ma are masculine.
* A few nouns that end in -o are feminine

You now know most of the rules for determining the gender of a noun. There are just a few more things to know, but they won't be covered until later. Remember, whenever you learn a new noun, learn it complete with its definite article (el, la). Definite articles are the subject of an upcoming lesson.