Gender of Spanish nouns

Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine. There is no neuter gender noun.

The rules you can rely on (most of the time) and the exceptions you should be aware of are listed here.

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Masculine nouns have the article "el" in singular form and the article "los" in plural.

Feminine nouns have the article "la" in singular form and the article "las" in plural.

When a plural includes both masculine and feminine elements, the masculine noun is used with the article "los" (for example: parents are "los padres", children are "los niños" or "los hijos").

Feminine nouns

Click on the little red play buttons and you can listen to the pronunciation of the feminine nouns.

Generally nouns ending in "-a"

la fruta, la mesa, la palabra

See Masculine for exceptions!

Nouns ending in "-dad" / "-tad" / "-tud"

• la ciudad, la edad, la universidad
• la amistad, la facultad, la libertad
• la inquietud, la juventud, la virtud

Nouns ending in "-ción" / "-sión" / "-gión"

• la canción, la estación, la lección
• la profesión, la televisión, la tensión
• la legión, la región, la religión

Nouns ending in "-ez", as long as they refer to abstract nouns formed with suffixes

• la rigidez -- rigidity
• la sensatez -- soberness
• la validez -- validity
• la vejez -- old age, oldness

Nouns ending in "-triz"

la actriz, la directriz, la emperatriz

Nouns ending in "-umbre"

la costumbre, la incertidumbre, la legumbre

Shortened version of originally feminine nouns

• la disco -- la discoteca*
• la foto -- la fotografía
• la moto -- la motocicleta
• la tele -- la televisión

* but when it refers to a disk, it's el disco

Nouns referring to women

• la madre -- mother
• la mujer -- woman, wife

Exceptions

Masculine

In broad generality, all nouns not fitting into the above categories and exceptions - plus the following.

Nouns of Greek origin, ending in "-ma" / "-ta" / "-pa"

• el clima, el programa, el tema
• el cometa, el planeta (but to confuse you: la dieta :-))
• el mapa

Exceptions

• el día (el mediodía) -- day, daytime (noon)
• el gorila -- gorilla
• el pijama -- pajamas
• el sofá -- sofa
• el tranvía -- tram, streetcar
• el yoga -- yoga

Different gender, different meaning

Some words can be used as either feminine or masculine but this will change their meaning. Some examples:

	masculine	feminine
capital	capital	capital city
cólera	cholera	bile, anger
coma	coma	comma
corte	cut	court
cura	priest	cure
final	ending	(sports) final
frente	front	forehead
orden	order	decree, holy order
papa	pope	potato
parte	message, report	part, portion
pendiente	earring	slope, hillside
pez	fish	tar, pitch

Different gender, same meaning

Certain nouns, usually referring to people, can be used in the same meaning as either feminine or masculine, depending on who you refer to.

• nouns ending in "-ista" (artista, florista, jurista)
• nouns ending in "-crata" (aristócrata, tecnócrata)
• amante -- lover
• cliente -- client
• guía -- guide
• idiota -- idiot
• modelo -- model
• soprano
• testigo -- witness

Feminine nouns with the article "el"

When a feminine noun begins with a stressed "a-" or "ha-" syllable, its singular form will have an "el" instead of "la" (and "un" instead of "una" as an indefinite article). In plural, it's back to normal.

• el agua, el alma, el asma
• el habla, el hada, el hambre*

* doubly irregular: a noun ending in "-e" with the article "el" - and still feminine :-)