{"id":134930,"date":"2023-04-05T19:24:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T23:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/spanish-gender-rules\/"},"modified":"2025-03-21T15:19:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T19:19:34","slug":"spanish-gender-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/spanish\/spanish-gender-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Rules in Spanish (Plus Examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many other Romance languages, Spanish nouns all have a g\u00e9nero <\/em>(gender)\u2014either masculine or feminine.\u00a0While this is one of the first grammar points beginner Spanish learners encounter, it can still be one of the most challenging to get used to as an English speaker.<\/p>\n

Below you’ll learn everything you need to know about correctly using gendered nouns in Spanish, plus tips to help you get the hang of them as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

You can also check out this story-based lesson from our YouTube channel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/lite-youtube><\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is Gender in Spanish?<\/h2>\n

Spanish is a gendered language, which means that all nouns\u2014including inanimate objects\u2014are either masculine or feminine.<\/p>\n

Their gender can change other words that follow or precede them, like adjectives.<\/p>\n

But while we use gendered pronouns for people (for example \u00e9l\u00a0<\/em>(he) and\u00a0ella <\/em>(she)), grammatical gender doesn’t use pronouns. For example, you wouldn’t refer to a table (mesa<\/em>)\u2014which is feminine\u2014as ella.<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead, we use gendered articles for this.<\/p>\n

Gendered articles in Spanish<\/h3>\n

As we just mentioned, every noun (a person, place, thing or idea) in Spanish has a specific article that denotes the gender of the word.<\/p>\n

There are two types of articles in Spanish: definite and indefinite articles.<\/strong> And both types are gendered.<\/p>\n

In English, our definite article is “the” and indefinite articles are words like “a,” “an” and “some.”<\/p>\n

There are nine total gendered articles in Spanish:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Spanish<\/th>English<\/th>Type of Article<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
El <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>The (masculine)<\/td>Definite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
La <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>The (feminine)<\/td>Definite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Los <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>The (plural, masculine)<\/td>Definite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Las <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>The (plural, feminine)<\/td>Definite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lo <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>The (neutral)<\/td>Definite (and direct object pronoun)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Un <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>A\/an (masculine)<\/td>Indefinite <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Una <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>A\/an (feminine)<\/td>Indefinite <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Unos <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Some (masculine)<\/td>Indefinite <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Unas <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Some (feminine)<\/td>Indefinite <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

The singular forms of gendered articles can be used like in these sentences:<\/p>\n

La<\/strong> casa es blanca<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The house is white<\/p>\n

El<\/strong> vestido es azul <\/em>\u2014 The dress is blue<\/p>\n

Una<\/strong> mujer habla espa\u00f1ol <\/em>\u2014 A woman speaks Spanish<\/p>\n

Un<\/strong> hombre est\u00e1 en la oficina<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 A man is in the office<\/p>\n

Likewise, we can make these sentences plural by using the corresponding plural forms of the articles:<\/p>\n

Las<\/strong> casas son blancas<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The houses are white<\/p>\n

Los<\/strong> vestidos son azules<\/em> \u2014 The dresses are blue<\/p>\n

Unas<\/strong> mujeres hablan espa\u00f1ol<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Some women speak Spanish<\/p>\n

Unos<\/strong> hombres est\u00e1n en la oficina<\/em> \u2014 Some men are in the office<\/p>\n

Lo<\/em> is considered a neutral pronoun, but it’s most commonly used as a direct object pronoun\u2014which means it replaces a masculine noun to avoid repetition. For example:<\/p>\n

Yo tengo el perro<\/em> (I have the dog) \u2192 Yo lo<\/strong> tengo\u00a0<\/em>(I have it)<\/p>\n

However, when used as a neutral pronoun, it can be used for arbitrary things or ideas that don’t necessarily have a gender, like this:<\/p>\n

Lo<\/strong> que quiero\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 What I want<\/p>\n

Lo<\/strong> que dijiste\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 What you said<\/p>\n

Gendered adjectives in Spanish<\/h3>\n

You might’ve picked up on this one from the last few examples, but adjectives also have gender in Spanish.<\/p>\n

However, they don’t have their own gender like nouns. Instead, they adopt the gender of the nouns they’re describing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Spanish sentences to be grammatically correct, everything must match the gender and quantity of the noun\u2014which means adjectives and articles have to become either plural, singular, masculine or feminine depending on the noun.<\/p>\n

Take a look at a few more examples and see how the adjectives and pluralization change:<\/p>\n

La<\/strong> chica es bonita <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 The girl is pretty<\/p>\n

El<\/strong> perro es viejo<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The dog is old<\/p>\n

Las<\/strong> flores son rojas <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 The flowers are red<\/p>\n

Los<\/strong> brazos son largos<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 The arms are long<\/p>\n

Rules for Noun Genders in Spanish<\/h2>\n

1. Nouns that end in “o<\/em>” are masculine<\/h3>\n

When talking about living creatures, nouns that end in \u201co\u201d are masculine.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

El gato <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 the male cat<\/p>\n

El chico <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 the boy<\/p>\n

El abuelo <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 the grandfather<\/p>\n

<\/b>2. Nouns that end in “a<\/em>” are feminine<\/h3>\n

Similarly, when talking about living creatures, nouns that end in \u201ca\u201d are feminine.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

La gata <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 the female cat<\/p>\n

La chica <\/strong><\/em>\u2014 the girl<\/p>\n

La abuela<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 the grandmother
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Some male-associated nouns are feminine and vice versa<\/h3>\n

Not everything associated with a male will automatically be masculine, nor everything associated with a female will automatically be feminine\u2014only distinct living creatures fall under this categorization.<\/p>\n

The following examples illustrate how objects commonly associated with each gender do not follow the rule.<\/p>\n

La<\/strong> corbata <\/em>\u2014\u00a0the necktie<\/p>\n

El<\/strong> maquillaje <\/em>\u2014\u00a0the makeup<\/p>\n

El\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>vestido\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 the dress<\/p>\n

Of course, there are thousands of nouns out, which can make memorizing their genders seem impossible.<\/p>\n

But the good news is, native speakers will still understand you if you get the gender wrong.<\/p>\n

The more you interact with Spanish\u2014whether through conversations with native speakers or by consuming Spanish content\u2014the more you’ll learn to associate nouns with their correct genders.<\/p>\n

You could also use an online immersion program. FluentU<\/a>, for example, has interactive subtitles on all of its videos, making it easier to learn which gender to use in context.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p> \r\n

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

P.S. If you decide to sign up now, you can take advantage of our current sale!<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \"FluentU\r\n

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