Spanish...male/female??

Question

How do you know if something is male or female in the spanish language??? Is there some sort of trick to this? I'm learning, but this one always seems to get me stuck!! Any help is much appreciated!! Gracias!!

How do you know when you are speaking...such as...when I am looking at something...how do I know if I should use an "a" or "o"??

Answer 1

You can't tell by looking at something if its masculine or feminine. You have to know what its called in Spanish. For example, I look at a door and know its la puerta because I know that the word for door is puerta. I hope that helps. Unfortunately there isn't anything in English to compare it to. No masculine or feminine words in English so its hard to understand. I think somebody had a reason for saying something is masculine or feminine when they made the words up but who knows what the reason was. Wait until you get to words like el dia. Ends with a but its masculine. Go figure. You just gotta memorize it. Buena suerte.

Answer 2

Actually, during my 23 years-lifetime as a native Spanish speaker, I have not stepped on that fact.

The common rule is an "o" ending corresponds to masculine, and "a" is for femenin. Remember Spanish comes from Latin.

In Latin, there are no less than 5 inflections, and each one corresponds to a given word-ending, and certain word-endings make a word masculin, femenin or neutrum. In spanish, we have no neutrum, so everything is masculin or femenin; but the latin-rule persists, since the a-ending was for femenin, and "-us, -um" became spanish "-o"

I must admit the word "el mapa" is masculin, and it is yet written with an a-ending, but this is the most uncommon and rare exception in this beautiful and poetic language. Some words can be either masculin or femenin, depending on its preceeding article (el/la), for example, ocupations ending in "-ista": you can either say "el dentista" or "la pianista", since you refer to a man or a woman, thus, you should not confuse them.

As I said before, Spanish is very poetic, and it is also very careful about the sound of the words, and sometimes you will find femenin words with article "el" (for instance "el águila, las águilas"). It is only due to letter-repeating-avoidance (cacofonía) you use the other article in singular, so you keep your speach always beautiful; in plural, you keep using the due femenin article (las)

It is somehow hard to explain, but this is the rule you have to follow. Yet, if you have any further doubt, send me an e-mail using the link on my profile. Good Luck!

Answer 3

when you are speaking spanish every noun is either masculine or feminine. such as el libro. the book. but...if you are using an adjective they are masculine or feminine too. if you are describing the boy and saying he is ugly it would be...el chico es feo. with an o. if you were saying the girl is ugly it would be...la chica es fea. with an a. o=masculine a=feminine. but some nouns just so you know...dont always go with the el=o ending and la=a ending. sometimes they are irregular and stuff. it gets complicated. hope i helped.

Answer 4

The simple answer is if it ends in 'o' (as in nino) its masculine, 'a' (nina) is feminine. But almost ALL words in the Spanish language are masculine or feminine, so that's something you learn with time. Look up any word in the yahoo spanish dictionary you'll see what I mean.

Answer 5

One other thing - any word that originates from Greek (such as olimpiada) is masculine. I think the same is any words with Arabic origin. Can't remember though.

Answer 6

Only one way, memorization. Sorry! That's how languages are learned. In general, if you see a noun ending with an "a", it's feminine, and if with a "o", it's maculine. However, there are plenty of exceptions (la mano, el pianista, el mapa....). Just try to memorize.

Answer 7

With congegated words feminie words end with a and maculine words end with an o. So as a woman you would pernounce the word with ending in an a and as a man you would pronoun it ending in o.

Answer 8

if the word's last vocal in letter a, then its usually femenine.
if its last vocal letters o,u,e are male
and not many words in spanish end with i but most are male.
for example:
perro- Male
Perra- Female

Answer 9

In general, masculine words end in "o" and feminine words end in "a"