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A. Gender of singular nouns and adjectives

A Spanish noun can be identified by the fact that it can have endings added to it to change its reference from singular to plural (covered in Lesson 4), and by the fact that it belongs to one of two sub-classes: masculine and feminine. While a noun can change for number, it has only one gender or the other, which is inherent and does not change. The terms masculine and feminine are convenient, but more or less arbitrary grammatical categories and have nothing to do with gender in the real world, except in the case of persons or animals that are clearly either masculine or feminine.

Nouns that have appeared so far include:

You will notice that the word el or la precedes each noun. The words el and la, called definite articles, are usually the equivalents of the English "the"; el is masculine, and la is feminine. The words un and una, called indefinite articles, are usually the equivalent of English "a" or "an". When learning a noun it is a good idea to memorize its gender at the same time. Usually this can be done by memorizing the appropriate form of the definite article with the noun. (El agua is an exception, since it is actually feminine. The el is used solely for pronunciation purposes.)

The articles, and other adjectives which change for gender, must appear in the same gender category as the noun with which they are associated. This is called gender agreement, and the associated adjective is said to agree with the noun. Thus adjectives differ from nouns in having two gender forms in order to agree with nouns.

There are two subclasses of adjectives--those which show a gender change, and those for which distinct gender forms are only potential. In certain circumstances the latter subclass can show a change, but usually they have the same endings for masculine or feminine agreement. Usually the forms which change have a final o for masculine and a for feminine forms, though sometimes the masculine form may end in a consonant, as español-española, inglés, inglesa when used as adjectives.

Other adjectives, like mineral, seis, siete, which end in e or in a consonant do not change. Thus:

Note that in Spanish adjectives usually follow the noun modified: Embajada Americana, casa blanca, etc. Some adjectives, like the articles el, la etc., always precede: la avenida, dos pesos, etc. These are usually "number" or "limiting" adjectives. Some adjectives, however, may either follow or precede the noun: pluma buena, buena pluma.

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