{"id":145291,"date":"2023-07-31T08:22:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T12:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/differences-between-english-and-spanish\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T13:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:21:12","slug":"differences-between-english-and-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/spanish\/differences-between-english-and-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Key Differences Between English and Spanish You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Spanish may not be the most difficult language for an English speaker to learn, there are quite a few things that you might find strange<\/a> and hard to grasp at first.<\/p>\n

Here, we\u2019ll peek at some of those tricky and seemingly-absurd concepts with the top 10 biggest differences between English and Spanish.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

1. Nouns are masculine or feminine in Spanish<\/h2>\n

What do an apple, your mom and scissors have in common?<\/p>\n

They’re all feminine nouns in Spanish.<\/p>\n

While assigning gender to objects<\/a> is common in other languages, it’s almost unheard of in modern English. For native English speakers, it can be a bit overwhelming at first.<\/p>\n

In Spanish, every noun is either masculine or feminine. You’ll know which gender it is by the article words el<\/em> and la<\/em>, which mean “the.”<\/p>\n

El<\/em> is masculine and\u00a0la<\/em> is feminine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word’s gender also affects adjectives and relative pronouns in the sentence. For example, if the noun is feminine, the adjective has to be feminine.<\/p>\n

Take these two sentences as examples. The first one is masculine and the second is feminine:<\/p>\n

El<\/strong> vestido es rojo<\/strong>.<\/em>
\n(The dress is red.)<\/p>\n

La<\/strong> camisa es<\/em> roja<\/strong>.<\/em>
\n(The shirt is red.)<\/p>\n

Usually, words that end with the letter o<\/em><\/strong> are masculine, and words that end with the letter a<\/em><\/strong> are feminine. But there are many exceptions.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to know a Spanish word’s gender is to simply memorize the article with the noun. For example, instead of learning\u00a0“vestido”<\/em> (dress) by itself, learn\u00a0“el<\/strong> vestido”<\/em> (the dress).<\/p>\n

There are a few more important things to learn about the masculine and feminine in Spanish, so I recommend bookmarking this guide so you can check it out once you finish this one:<\/p>\n

Masculine and Feminine in Spanish: What You Need to Know About Spanish Gender<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n