Masculine & Feminine

Key Points to Remember:

• Words ending in 'o' are most often Masculine.
• Words ending in 'a' are most often Feminine.

For example, el hermano - the brother and la hermana - the sister.

• When referring to masculine definite articles we tend to use 'el' and for indefinite masculine articles we use 'un'.
• When referring to feminine definite artticles we tend to use 'la' and for indefinite feminine articles we use 'una'.

So if we were to talk about our friend we would say un amigo, if he were masculine, or una amiga if she were feminine.

• If a word ends in 'ista' then its ending remains unaffected by gender, only the 'the' ('la' or 'el') before the word changes depending on the gender to which you are referring.
• Similarly, words that end in an 'e' (e.g. la madre - mother or el padre - father) keep the 'e' ending, and again it's only the 'la' or 'el' that differentiates the gender to which you are referring.
• Words ending in 'ción' or 'sión' are always feminine and are often the equivalent of the English 'sion' or 'tion' (but not always!). Never forget to place the accent on the ó! Examples include la condición - the condition or la estación - the station.

There is a bit of remembering to do, as some words don't end in anything famiiar. For example, for el ordenador - the computer (m) or el lápiz - the pencil (m) you will just have to write down and memorise as you come across them, as there's no easy way to learn these.

Exceptions to the Rules:

However, be very careful, as there are a few words in Spanish vocabulary that do not follow the rules; they are rare and you will not come across them often. For example, you might expect la mano (the hand) to be a masculine term due to its 'o' ending, however it is actually feminine, hence the 'la'.

The same can be said for a few rare examples ending in 'a', e.g. el planeta (the planet), whilst the planet is actually masculine it ends in 'a'.