Every noun has a gender
Every Spanish noun is either masculine (el) or feminine (la). There is no neutral option, so no equivalent of the English it that lets an object escape gender: a book is masculine, a table is feminine, and that says nothing about books or tables. Gender decides the article and the form of every adjective, so learn it with the word. The best clue is the ending.
The basic rule: -o masculine, -a feminine
Usually masculine: -o
Usually feminine: -a
Both endings in a sentence
El trabajo es interesante.
The work is interesting.
La mesa está en la cocina.
The table is in the kitchen.
More endings you can rely on
Beyond -o and -a, a few endings give the gender away almost every time. Two come free with English: Spanish -ción is English -tion, and -dad or -tad is English -ty.
Usually masculine
Usually feminine
These endings in a sentence
El color es bonito.
The colour is nice.
La ciudad es grande.
The city is big.
The exceptions that matter
A few very common words break the rule. Learn each of them with its article attached.
Masculine despite -a
Feminine despite -o
El problema es muy grande.
The problem is very big.
La mano es importante.
The hand is important.
Feminine, but el: el agua
Feminine nouns that begin with a stressed a- take el (and un) instead of la (una) in the singular, so that two a-sounds do not collide. The noun stays feminine: adjectives stay feminine, and las returns in the plural.
El agua está fría.
The water is cold.
fría is feminine. Plural: las aguas frías.
Hay un águila blanca.
There is a white eagle.
águila is feminine. Plural: las águilas.
People follow their real-world gender
With people and many animals the grammatical gender matches the person. Most of these words come as a pair, -o for the man and -a for the woman. If the masculine form ends in a consonant, you add -a: profesor → profesora. For words ending in -e only the article changes: el estudiante, la estudiante.
| Masculine | Feminine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| el chico | la chica | boy / girl |
| el hermano | la hermana | brother / sister |
| el amigo | la amiga | friend (m / f) |
| el profesor | la profesora | teacher (m / f) |
| el estudiante | la estudiante | student (m / f) |
The same sentence, two genders
El profesor es simpático.
The teacher is nice.
La profesora es simpática.
The teacher is nice.
