PLURALS

Today we are going to take a look how do plurals make in Spanish. Not very difficult, but you should have this point so clear so that you don´t look like so “foreigner” when you speak with a native Spanish.

Those which add  –s	–          Words that end in vowel if they don´t have “accent”: mesas, ventanas, niños. –          Words that end in –é and ó (notice the graphic accent): cafés,
Those which add –es	–          Words that end in consonant: ciudades, camiones –          Words that end in –á, -í, -ú (notice the graphic accent) except some as mamas, papas: sofás: hindúes –          Words ending in stressed vowel + s: intereses –          Words ending in –z change also to –c: lápices, veces –          Naming vowels: aes, oes .. –          Words with diphthong or triphthong: reyes, bueyes –          Monosyllable words if they end in –s: mieses
Without changes	–          Nouns of two or more syllable if they end in –s or –x: virus, análisis

 

MASCULINE AND FEMENINE

Masculine a Feminine can sometimes be a pain in the neck because in English masculine and feminine are equal most of the time. Moreover there are so many ways to make the masculine and feminine (also plurals) in Spanish so the problem is even bigger. Ok, let´s try to shed some light on:

• Masculine is mainly marked with the word ending in –o and –e.
  • Niño
  • Jefe

 

• Masculine can also be known by the lack of a concrete ending:
  • León
  • Ganador

 

• Femenine used to end with the followings endings: -a; -esa; -triz; -ina; -isa
  • Niña
  • Leona
  • Ganadora
  • Jefa
  • Tigresa
  • Heroina
  • Emperatriz
  • Poetisa

 

• Words ending in –ción; -sión; -tad; -dad; -tud used to be feminine:
  • Nación
  • Tension
  • Ciudad
  • Actitud
  • Amistad
  • Emoción

 

• Many nouns ending in –o and –e can change this vowel to –a in order to make the feminine:
  • Niño – niña
  • Nene – nena
  • Jefe – jefa
  • Compañero – compañera

 

• There are also some nouns that have the same form differing only because the use of the article used:
  • El/la artista
  • El/la estudiante
  • El/la deportista

 

• Some nouns don´t have a proper gender being able to use any article:
  • El/la mar

 

• Other ones change the word entirely:
  • Hombre/mujer
  • Macho/hembra
  • Yerno/nuera
  • Toro/vaca
  • Padre/madre

 

• Names of the days, colors, languages and cardinal points are masculine

 

• There is also a kind of words whose ending is –ma and derive from ancient Greek. Those ones are mainly masculine:
  • Programa
  • Problema
  • Sistema
  • Idioma
  • Clima
  • Tema

 

• Notice that some words change the meaning depending the article goes with it:
  • La coma/el coma
  • El corte/la corte

Well, it´s not easy, isn´t it? Gender used is one of the main signs the Spanish notice of a non-Spanish speaker, specially the English speakers and it´s something natural because you don´t make this distinction, and sometimes it doesn´t even have a rule, so the only advise a can give you is to practice and read a lot to get used to it. And you don´t have to worry if you don´t used correctly the gender of a word, the Spanish understand this and we always understand what you are trying to say.