Learn Spanish online with
Latin American Spanish
professional teachers
No slang and useful everywhere
Spanish Online GT
When we talk about the gender of words, we mean whether the word is feminine or masculine (male and female is something else). To know if a word is feminine or masculine, we are guided by the ending of the word and for this you can guide yourself with the following table.
Words ending in "e" are unconcerned to this table since there are so many masculine and feminine words, the best you can do is memorize the gender of the word. Here are some common words ending in "e":
Feminine Words:
La llave, la clave, la fuente, la clase, la gente, la suerte, la nube, la carne, la calle, la noche, la mente, la muerte, la parte, la base, la frente, la tarde, la catástrofe, la sangre, la torre, etc.
Masculine words:
El café. el timbre, el baile, el parque, el postre, el muelle, el golpe, el mensaje, el detalle, el desastre, el viaje, el juguete, el ataque, el diente, el aire, el deporte, el tomate, etc.
GENERAL EXCEPTIONS
1._ Nouns comming from verbs ending in _ante and _ente, can be masculine or feminine; the article defines the gender.
E.g.
El / La cantante
El / La referente
El / La estudiante
El / La representante
El / La ayudante
Etc.
*An exception to this would be the words "(el) presidente" and "(el) sirviente", whose feminine words would popularly be "(la) presidenta" and "(la) sirvienta".
2._ Nouns ending in _ista (normally professions, occupations or trades), can be masculine or feminine, the article defines gender.
E.g.
El / La turista
El / La deportista
El / La dentista
El / La comunista
El / La periodista
Etc.
3._ Most nouns ending in _ma are masculine. Most of them are cognates in many languages.
E.g.
El idioma
El problema
El sistema
El clima
El programa
Etc.
Exceptions to this rule:
La cama, la fama, la espuma, la cima, la grama, la palma, la forma, la grama, la calma, la broma la pluma, la firma, etc.
4._ Feminine nouns that begin with accented "a" use masculine article in the singular. This is to avoid cacophony.
E.g.
El agua > las aguas
El alma > las almas
El área > las áreas
El águila > las águilas
Etc.
5._ Days of the week are masculine.
El lunes, el martes, el miércoles, el jueves, el viernes, el sábado, el domingo. Note that we do not use "en" (on), but rather the singular masculine article.
How To Form The Plural
1._ If the word ends in a consonant, "es" is added to the end of the word.
E.g.
Ciudad > ciudades
Volcán > volcanes
Reloj > relojes
Hotel > hoteles
Color > colores
2._If the word ends in a vowel, an "s" is added to the end of the word.
E.g.
Casa > casas
Hombre > hombres
Libro > libros
Metrópoli > metrópolis
Tribu > tribus
*Except for Sábado and Domingo (los Sábados, los Domingos), the days of the week are not changed to the plural.