Spanish feminine and masculine words. Rules and Exercises
As you may know, Spanish words can be masculine or feminine. But, do you know how to identify them? Let’s discover together the most important Spanish feminine and masculine rules.
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SPANISH FEMININE AND MASCULINE
It is very important to know the gender of Spanish nouns because this affects the other words you use with them (articles and adjectives).
– NOUNS ENDING IN –O ARE MASCULINE:
– el libro (the book) – el teléfono (the telephone) – el museo (the museum).
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There are some exceptions: la mano, la foto, la moto, la radio (as you can see, with these words we use the feminine article la).
– NOUNS ENDING IN -A ARE FEMININE:
– la casa (the house) – la silla (the chair) – la guitarra (the guitar).
⚠️ BE CAREFUL! ⚠️
Even in this case, there are exceptions: el día, el idioma, el mapa, el programa, el problema, el sofá (even if these words end in –a, we use the masculine article el).
– NOUNS ENDING WITH A CONSONANT CAN BE MASCULINE OR FEMININE✳️:
– el pan (the bread) – la luz (the light).
✳️Names ending in -dad, -tad (la ciudad, la libertad) and nouns ending in -ción, -sión (la canción, la decisión) are usually feminine.
NOUNS REFERRING TO PEOPLE
Of course, there is also a difference between Spanish feminine and masculine when referring to people. Usually, nouns ending in -o are masculine, and nouns ending in -a are feminine, but there are many exceptions and there are also many words that end in -e or consonant.
MASCULINE |
FEMININE |
|---|---|
| -o,-e: el niño, el cocinero, el dependiente | –a: la niña, la cocinera, la dependienta |
| –Consonant: el profesor, el bailarín | +a: la profesora, la bailarina |
| -ante, -ista: el estudiante, el taxista | -ante, –ista: la estudiante, la taxista |
| Different word endings: el actor, el rey, el príncipe | Different word endings: la actriz, la reina, la princesa |
| Different words: el hombre, el padre | Different words: la mujer, la madre |
Even when we refer to people, there are exceptions. For example, el piloto (the pilot), el modelo (the model), or el paciente (the patient) don’t change in the feminine even if they end in -o.
NOUNS REFERRING TO ANIMALS:
Finally, with regard to animal names, in some cases they have both a masculine and a feminine form: el gato – la gata, el perro – la perra, el caballo – la yegua, etc.
However, most animal names only have one form, either masculine or feminine. For example, they are always masculine:
- 🦘el canguro (the kangaroo)
- 🐒el chimpancé (the chimpanzee)
- 🐊el cocodrilo (the crocodile)
- 🐵el gorilla (the gorilla)
- 🐥el pájaro (the bird)
- 🐧el pingüino (the penguin)
- 🐟el pez (the fish)
- 🐁el ratón (the mouse)
Instead, they are always feminine:
- 🕷️la araña (the spider)
- 🐳la ballena (the whale)
- 🦒la jirafa (the giraffe)
- 🦋la mariposa (the butterfly)
- 🦗la mosca (the fly)
- 🐍la serpiente (the snake)
- 🐀la rata (the rat)
We hope that our lesson on Spanish feminine and masculine has clarified your ideas on this Spanish grammar topic.
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