Gender of Nouns and Definite and Indefinite articles

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Gender of Nouns
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Hola! Me llamo Diego. Your teacher has invited
me today to help clarify your doubts when
deciding the gender of words . There are some
things you should keep in mind when doing so. Let
me explain
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Its all about understanding that in Spanish,
every noun (person, place or thing) has a gender,
and that in Spanish, a noun can be either
masculine or feminine.
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How are all of these masculine nouns alike? el
abogado el libro el chico el baño
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How are all of these feminine nouns alike? la
casa la maestra la chica la doctora
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If you look at both the beginning and the ending
of each line
Masculine Nouns generally end in o Feminine
Nouns generally end in a. el /un diccionario
el / un secretario la / una computadora la
/ una profesora
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el" and "la" both mean "the. el chico / the
boy la chica / the girl
These two words (el, la) are called definite
articles.
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One cannot predict the gender of a noun, except
in the case of living creatures. Do not try to
analyze the nature of the object, looking for
some inherent masculinity or femininity. It
won't work!
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Take a guess. Do you think the Spanish word for
"dress" is masculine or feminine? You might
expect it to be feminine, since a dress is an
article of clothing worn by females. Actually,
the word for "dress" is a masculine word el
vestido
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Take another guess. Do you think the Spanish word
for "necktie" is masculine or feminine? You might
expect it to be masculine, since a necktie is an
article of clothing worn by males.
Actually, the word for "necktie" is a feminine
word la corbata
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Nouns that end in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad,
-tud are feminine.
televisión
ciudad
conversación
libertad
actitud
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A few nouns that end in -ma are feminine, such as
la cama and la pluma.
Many nouns that end in -ma are masculine. el
clima el poema
A few nouns that end in -o are feminine. la mano
Some nouns that end in -a are masculine. el
problema el dia
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Plural Forms of Nouns
If a noun ends in a vowel, make it plural by
adding -s.
señora señoras
libro libros
The definite articles (el, la) also change in the
plural form. They become "los" and "las."
el libro los libros
la señora las señoras
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Plural Forms of Nouns
If a noun ends in a consonant, make it plural by
adding -es.
el profesor los profesores
la ciudad la ciudades
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Definite and Indefinite Articles
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The difference between definite articles and
indefinite articles can be observed in the
following two sentences
Give me the chocolate chip cookie.
Give me a cookie,
please.
The second sentence speaks of any of a number of
cookies (or an indefinite cookie)
The first sentence speaks of a particular (or
definite) cookie
Imagine a plate full of cookies. There are peanut
butter cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread
cookies, and one chocolate chip cookie.
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In Spanish, the definite article has 4 forms,
depending on whether the noun is masculine,
feminine, singular or plural.
el chico
la chica
los chicos
las chicas
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I hope this helped! Tengo que irme. Hasta la
vista!