Nouns
Nouns are used to name all sorts of things:
people, animals, objects,
places, ideas, emotions, feelings, virtues, defects.
Examples of nouns in English:
cat, dog, house, river,
Richard, Santiago, Chile, boy, love, selfishness, courage, loyalty, etc.
Gender
In Spanish, nouns may be masculine or feminine. Unlike English, in Spanish even
inanimate nouns are classified as masculine or feminine.
You can usually tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine by its ending.
- Nouns ending in ‘s’ are masculine: país, autobús, mes, compas
- Nouns ending in ‘ma’ are masculine: puma, sistema, tema
- Nouns ending in ‘r’, are masculine: motor, par, cráter
- Nouns ending in ‘l’, are masculine: pastel, papel, redil, mantel
- Nouns ending in ‘o’ are masculine: libro, niño, sueño, diccionario
- Nouns ending in ‘n’ are masculine: jabón, jardín, capitán, atún
- About 50% of nouns ending in ‘e’ are masculine: puente, diente, peine
Perhaps ‘SMARLONE’ will help you to remember the above!
- Nouns ending in ‘a’ are feminine: niña, mesa, ventana
- Nouns ending in ‘ción’ are feminine: canción, nación, situación
- Nouns ending in ‘sión’ are feminine: profesión, posesión,
- Nouns ending in ‘d’ are feminine: amistad, ciudad, voluntad
- Nouns ending in ‘z’ are feminine: paz, cruz, luz
- About 50% of nouns ending in ‘e’ are feminine:
- Nouns ending in -ista can be masculine or feminine: turista, dentista, periodista.
- Nouns ending in -ente can be masculine or feminine: gerente, cliente, dirigente.
- Nouns ending in -ante can be masculine or feminine: visitante, agente, dibujante.
Singular and Plural Nouns in Spanish
Most Spanish nouns are either singular (one) or plural (several).
The plural of nouns that end in a vowel (-a, -e, -i, -o, -u) is usually formed by adding an -s.
Examples:
silla/sillas; padre/padres; taxi/taxis; mango/mangos;
Nouns that end in a consonant usually form the plural by adding -es.
Examples:
cartel/carteles; pared/paredes; joven/jóvenes
Exceptions include nouns ending in -s or -x which have the same form
in both singular and plural:
Examples:
virus/virus, tórax/tórax, crisis/crisis.
Orthographic rule
When a noun ends in -z, the plural is formed by changing -z to -ces.
el lápiz, los lápices; la raíz, las raíces.
Nouns ending in -í, -ú, -tonics, add -es.
el colibrí, los colibríes; el bambú, los bambúes; el rubí, los rubíes.
The Article
This is the word that goes before the noun, like
a/an or
the in English.
Articles may be definite or indefinite, and feminine or masculine,
and singular or plural.
Indefinite articles
As in English, we use the indefinite article when we are talking
about someone or something without specifying precisely which person or
thing, e.g. “Do you have a pen (any pen)?”
Although in English the indefinite article is always a/an, in Spanish the choice
of indefinite article has to agree with the gender of the noun being referred to:
un hombre, una donna, un coche, una casa.
The equivalent of the English ‘some’ as in
I met some friends is
unos (masculine) and unas (feminine).
Definite articles
The definite article is used when we are talking about a particular person or thing,
e.g. “Do you have the tickets (the tickets for the theater show that
we are going to now)?”
In English, the same definite article is used with all nouns, masculine,
feminine and others:
the man, the woman, the car, the house.
In Spanish, a different definite article is used depending on gender:
el hombre, la mujer, el coche, la casa.
In English, the same definite article is used with all nouns, singular, plural,
and uncountable/mass nouns:
the man, the men; the woman, the women;
the house, the houses; the rice; the fear.
In Spanish, a different definite article is used with singular and plural nouns:
el hombre, los hombres; la mujer, las mujeres; el coche, los coches, la casa, las casas.
When something is mentioned for the first time, we often use an
indefinite article; when we mention the same thing later, we often use a definite article.
Example:
Estaba sentado en una silla. La silla se rompió.
(He was sitting on a chair. The chair broke.)
The Neutral Article
In Spanish, a neutral article is placed before an adjective which is
being used as a noun.
Examples:
Su conducción es lo peor. (His driving is the worst.)
Lo interesante del libro son los ejercicios. (The interesting thing about the book is the exercises.)
