Gender of nouns
A noun is defined as a (1) ___________________ , (2) ___________________
(3) ___________________
or (4) ___________________
.
Examples: (1) ___________________
(3) ___________________
,
(2) ___________________
(4) ___________________
All European languages except for ___________________
have 2 or 3 genders for their nouns and
adjectives. English nouns have no gender; the concept does not even exist in English.
Spanish has _
genders for its nouns: ________________
Most nouns that end in
Most nouns that end in
and ___________________ .
are masculine.
are feminine.
EXAMPLES
Masculine nouns
Feminine nouns
Whether a noun is masculine or feminine has nothing to do with whether a word represents “guy” things
or “girl” things. For example, corbata, which is feminine, means ___
, something typically
worn by men. Vestido, which means _____
, is masculine but is worn by women. Most words in
any language, of course, like “pencil,” “chair,” “printer,” “mountain,” “pizza,” etc., don’t bring to mind a
male or female image at all. In Spanish, a word is masculine or feminine simply because it developed that
way through thousands of years of speech.
Many nouns in Spanish do not end in
feminine just by looking at them.
or
, so you cannot assume that they are masculine or
EXAMPLES
Masculine nouns
If a noun does not end in _
or _
Feminine nouns
, the easiest way to tell if it is masculine or feminine is to look at
the _______________ _____________ in front of the noun. (Note: If you look up a noun that does not
end in “o” or “a” in a full-sized dictionary, the dictionary will either have an “m” or “f” to help you.)
Definite articles
Definite articles in English are easy because there is only one: ___
We use the same word in front of all of our nouns, whether singular or plural.
the cat
the cats
the spy
the spies
In all other European languages, the definite article changes according to where a word is masculine or
feminine and whether it is singular or plural. That means there are 4 or 6 ways to say “the” in every other
European language!
In Spanish, the definite article __
means “the” for singular masculine nouns.
In Spanish, the definite article __
means “the” for singular feminine nouns.
When a word becomes plural, the definite article becomes plural too.
SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS
Singular noun
Plural noun
el bolígrafo el número la hora la casa el mes el lápiz Notice that you can tell that mes and lápiz are masculine words because they have “el” in front of them.
Likewise, you can tell that la suerte and la nariz are feminine because of the “la” in front even though
neither word ends in “a” like most feminine nouns do.
Rule breakers
This has been too easy. We have to throw in something to challenge you a little bit.
There are a few dozen words in Spanish that LOOK feminine because they end in _
actually masculine.
How will you be able to tell that these words are masculine?
, but are
There are only two common words in Spanish that LOOK masculine but are actually feminine. One is a
body part:
____
.
“Rule-breaking” noun
el día el mapa el planeta la modelo Definition in English
REVIEW FOR MASTERY TEST #1
Cognate: A word in one language that looks like what it means in another.
hora = hour
secretaria = secretary
computadora = computer
Letter Sounds:
•
_____ and _____
•
_____ and _____
•
_____
Letter that is silent
•
_____
Letter that sounds like “ny” in the word “canyon”
•
_____
Letter that sounds like “y” in the word “yellow”
•
_____
Letter that sounds like “h” in the word “hot”
•
_____
Letter that sounds like “s” in the word “snake” (“sss”
sound, not “zzz”)
•
Tú vs. usted: Both mean “you”
Two letters that can change sounds, hard or soft,
depending on the vowel that follows it
Two letters that sound exactly the same
o _____: Informal—used with friends, siblings, pets, people your own age
o _____: Formal—used with adults, people in positions of authority and
respect, abbreviated Ud.
•
Me llamo…
o Literally means “___________________________________”
o We usually say “___________________________________”
o Why is “Me llamo es…” wrong?
ƒ We would be saying “I call myself is…” or “My name is is…”
• Ex: “Me llamo es Jorge.” Ö “I call myself is Jorge” or “My name is is
Jorge.”
ƒ The “is” is already implied in the phrase “me llamo”
Accents serve two purposes:
1. To stress a syllable (música, ubicación, fácil, Ramírez, etc.)
2. To clarify meaning when two words are spelled the same
sí = yes ; si = if
mi = my ; mí = “a mí,” “para mí,” etc. (usually means “me” in English)
tú = you ; tu = your
Capitalization:
_____________, _______ _____ ______ __________, _______________________ and
__________________________ are not capitalized in Spanish.