1.3.- Feminine nouns and their endings in Spanish
As we said in the previous video, nouns that end with the letter -A are usually feminine, but we also have many exceptions and particular cases like the ones that we are going to study in this section.
I will also give you an important note: feminine nouns that begin with a stressed A- or HA- take a masculine definite or indefinite article in the singular form. Here you will learn how it works.
Now you know how to identify any feminine noun in Spanish. It’s not so difficult, is it?
Anyway, remember that these are the general rules, the best way to know whether a noun is feminine or not is by reading, talking, watching movies and using the language as often as you can.
Memorization and frequent practice will help you learn their gender more than any rule.
And, in case there is still any doubt, you can also look at the rest of the words in the sentence (articles, adjectives, etc.), they will have the same gender as the word they accompany.
And now, let’s do this exercise to see if everything’s clear so far.
Exercise 2:
Great! You can now go to the next video. And, remember, if you still have doubts, you can always contact me on the support form.
VIDEO TIMELINE:
In this third section we talk about:
- Min 00:12 = Nouns that end with the letter -A are usually feminine.
- Min 00:29 = Other words that don’t end with the letter -A and are feminine nouns:
- Min 00:37 = Some nouns that end with the letter -O.
- Min 01:09 = Nouns with some particular endings are usually feminine (-CIÓN, -SIÓN, -ZÓN, -DAD, -TAD, -ED, -EZ, -IA, -IE (átona), -ANCIA, -ENCIA, -INCIA, -TUD, -UMBRE, -SIS)
- Min 02:46 = Certain groups of nouns belonging to a theme are feminine.
- Min 03:23 = IMPORTANT NOTE. Feminine nouns that begin with a stressed A- or HA
FEMININE NOUNS AND THEIR
ENDINGS IN SPANISH
1.- THE GENERAL RULE FOR FEMININE NOUNS:
As we just said (in the previous section):
Nouns that end with the letter -A are usually feminine:
La hermana (the sister)
La rata (the rat)
La carpeta (the folder)
La manzana (the apple)
La corbata (the tie)
2.- THE EXCEPTIONS:
But we can also find many other words that don’t end with the letter -A and are feminine nouns.
1.- Some nouns that end with the letter -O are feminine.
For example:
La mano (the hand)
La radio (the radio)
La foto (the photograph)
La moto (the motorcycle)
Note that “la foto” is the abbreviation for “la fotografía” (the photograph) and
“la moto” is the abbreviation for “la motocicleta” (the motorcycle).
2.- Nouns with the following endings
are usually feminine:
| – CIÓN, – SIÓN, – ZÓN: | la ración, la presión, la razón |
| – DAD, – TAD: | la brevedad, la santidad, la lealtad |
| – ED: | la pared, la red, la sed |
| – EZ, – EZA: | la vez, la niñez, la pereza, la tristeza |
| – IA, – IE (átona): | la gloria, la historia, la barbarie, la efigie |
| – ANCIA, – ENCIA, – INCIA: | la prestancia, la prudencia, la provincia |
| – TUD: | la acritud, la pulcritud, la virtud |
| – UMBRE: | la costumbre, la cumbre, la incertidumbre |
| – SIS: | la crisis, la neurosis, la tesis |
3.- Regardless the letter they end with, certain groups of nouns belonging to a theme are feminine. These include:
| – Many illnesses: | la gripe, la apendicitis, la neumonía |
| – Islands: | las Canarias, las Baleares |
| – Provinces: | la Galicia profunda, la Castilla rural |
And now, I’m going to give you an important note:
3.- IMPORTANT NOTE:
Feminine nouns that begin with a stressed A- or HA-, like:
AGUA
AVE
HARPA
HADA
are feminine, BUT
for purposes of pronunciation,
take a masculine definite or indefinite article
in the singular form:
EL / UN
instead of the feminine one.
That’s why we say:
EL AGUA
UN AVE
EL HARPA
UN HADA
The goal is to prevent the clash of two vowel sounds, we cannot say “la agua” “una ave”, “la harpa” or “una hada”; that’s incorrect, it doesn’t sound good for a Spanish speaker.
But because they are feminine nouns, we keep using the feminine form of adjectives to modify these nouns, and we say:
EL AGUA FRESCA
UN AVE PEQUEÑA
EL HARPA DORADA
UN HADA MÁGICA
“Fresca”, “pequeña”, “dorada” and “mágica” are feminine adjectives. The only masculine word in these cases is the article EL or UN.
In the plural, we use the feminine articles again
because there is not any clash of sounds
thanks to the presence of the letter -S:
LAS AGUAS
UNAS AVES
LAS HARPAS
UNAS HADAS
So, remember, we only use the masculine articles EL or UN before feminine nouns that begin with a stressed A- or HA- in singular.
This only happens in nouns whose first syllable is stressed.
It happens in words like “alma” or “hacha”, we say “el alma” or “un hacha” because “al” and “ha”, the first syllables, are also the stressed syllables.
But in words like “abeja” or “habitación”, we use the regular feminine articles, so we say:
LA ABEJA
UNA HABITACIÓN
because the stressed syllables are “be” and “ción”.
In Spanish, knowing which syllable is stressed in any word is very important.
We’ll talk about that in another lesson.
And this is the end of this section.
Thank you for watching!
I’ll see you in the next video!
Lesson 1: gender of nouns in Spanish
1.0.- Gender of nouns in Spanish: Introduction
1.1.- Gender of nouns in Spanish
1.2.- Masculine nouns and their endings in Spanish
1.3.- Feminine nouns and their endings in Spanish
1.4.- Forming the feminine nouns in Spanish
1.5.- Lesson 01 Evaluation Test