Yes, Spanish language speakers (natural speakers) do follow the rules like that.
2006-07-06 07:34:04
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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Spanish speakers basically always use gender accurately. If they ever make a mistake it's a very uncommon one.
If you are noticing some differences between how native speakers use it and what you've been taught, then the rule that you've been taught is deficient.
I assume you mean that if the word ends in 'o' it's masculine and if it ends in 'a' it's feminine. Spanish speakers probably do not have this rule in their heads for the words that they know; they just remember the gender of every noun that they know.
This is why words like 'programa' are masculine and words like 'mano' are feminine. In other words, the rule that you've been taught was created to teach you how to approximate the behavior of Spanish speakers, but the rule doesn't always work sometimes. You can probably get away with remembering a few exceptions. In addition, there are some words that the rule doesn't even say anything about, like "papel". You have to know that the word is masculine, because it doesn't end in either 'o' or 'a'.
Also, one more thing: there are some words that start with 'a' sounds that, despite the fact that they are feminine, use the masculine article when they are singular. For example, "agua" is one of these words. So you can say "el agua limpia". The "limpia" is a feminine adjective, which agrees with the noun because it's feminine, but in order to avoid two 'a' sounds in a row, they use 'el' in front of agua. The plural version is "las aguas limpias". Again, this doesn't happen for all words beginning in 'a' sounds, just some of them.
Sorry it's so complicated, but that's the way it is. I recommend that you make flashcards that have the noun on one side and the article on the back. Using these flashcards can help you to memorize the genders of nouns that you're having trouble with.
If it makes you feel any better, Spanish only has two genders, but German has three, and Swahili has something like 11. So you're getting off easy, I'd say. :)
2006-07-06 08:25:31
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answer #2
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answered by drshorty 7
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Native spanish speakers usually use the correct gender for each word because that's how they've learned it. They don't think about the rules as they speak just as we, with english, just talk. If you said una or un with the wrong gender, it would just sound wrong to them. It's like if someone said, "I seen it" in english instead of "I saw it". We don't know why it's wrong. We just know it is wrong (hopefully).
2006-07-12 01:00:42
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answer #3
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answered by Jimbo 2
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There are very few native Spanish speakers that would ever violate the gender rule. To our ear "un nube" would sound ridiculous ("nube" = cloud). It can be done for humorous effect - by way of imitating some foreign speaker.
Also remember that there are a handful of words that dialectically enjoy a gender duality, e.g., you can find "la mar," and "el mar."
2006-07-06 08:29:14
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answer #4
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answered by JAT 6
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Yes, they do, in fact, follow the gender rule and no, they don't mix them up but sometimes when they really get rolling, the pronounciation differences are so slight it's easy to mix them up. What fascinates me is, when something new is discovered -- for example, when computers were first invented, how did they decide that it was la computadora, instead of making it a masculine thing?
De nada.
2006-07-06 11:37:14
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answer #5
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answered by old lady 7
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Yes, we always follow the gender rules. There are some other things that we submit when we are talking because we talk really fast, but in most cases we follow the rules.
2006-07-06 07:47:37
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answer #6
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answered by Carolina 1
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Yes, we do, we use it accurately, the problem i've observed is that some words are masculine or femenine in English or sometimes there are some neutral words with no gender and they are the opposite in Spanish.
2006-07-06 07:39:55
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answer #7
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answered by Maryam.muslimah 5
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Yes, they do follow the gender rules. It just comes naturally like english speakers naturally know how to pronounce words even if their spelling is different.
2006-07-06 07:36:20
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answer #8
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answered by Juke Nibi! 4
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I doubt if all of them do. English speakers don't always follow the a/an rule. Most people take liberties with their language.
2006-07-06 07:36:11
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answer #9
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answered by david s 4
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yes we do, because for us it is not a rule, it is natural for us to know if some word is 'masculine' or 'femenine' so we know when to use el, la, uno, una.
In some cases you may observe it different because of 'good sound' reasons, for example, water in Spanish is 'agua' we think of it as a feminine word (any adjective we say about it would end with an 'a': buena, clara, limpia), but we don't say 'la agua' we say 'el agua'. Because this combination of 'la_a...' is not ok.
2006-07-06 09:54:57
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answer #10
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answered by Fabula 3
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