Page 1 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
Introduction
Choose the best answer.
Nouns are _______.
a) a rare but dangerous breed of leeches found in the Amazon.
b) what boys talk about in the locker room.
c) the coolest fad in Hollywood next to sequins.
d) a category of words that – according to your sixth grade English teacher – refer
to people, places, things, or ideas.
O.k. if you guessed “d,” you’re well on your way to becoming a grammar guru. As you
know, nouns usually refer to:
•
•
•
•
People:
Places:
Things:
Ideas:
Benito Juárez, Gloria Estefan, Pablo Picasso, etc.
casa, universidad, México, etc.
coche, comida, libro, etc.
libertad, justicia, verdad, etc.
Just as in English, nouns in Spanish can be either singular or plural. However, unlike
English, Spanish nouns also have gender – they are masculine or feminine. Sometimes
gender is obvious: madre is feminine, padre is masculine. This is called natural gender.
But sometimes gender makes no logical sense: mesa is feminine while libro is masculine.
This is called grammatical gender. This Activity reviews how to remember what nouns are
masculine and what nouns are feminine. It also reviews the rules on how to make singular
nouns plural.
Gender of Nouns: Natural
Gender is very important in Spanish. In fact, all nouns in Spanish are categorized according
to their gender: masculine or feminine. Natural gender is obvious. For example, el hombre
(the man), el yerno (the son-in-law), and el caballo (the horse – referring to a male horse)
are male living creatures. So these words are masculine. The same is true on the other side.
That is, la mujer (the woman), la nuera (the daughter-in-law), and la yegua (the mare) are
female living creatures. So these words are feminine.
However, not all gender is so easy to identify. For non-living things, gender has nothing to
do with biology, but rather grammar. How's that? To answer this we'll have to take a closer
look.
Identify the gender of the following words: Book, Cup, Picture, and Shirt
Give up? Well, because there is no inherent masculine or feminine quality about any of
these objects, guessing the gender of these non-living things is hit and miss.
But what about words like "dress" and "necktie"? Since dresses are worn by women,
shouldn't they be feminine? And since neckties are worn by men, shouldn't they be
masculine? The answers to both of these questions are "no." "Dress" is actually masculine
(el vestido) and "necktie" is actually feminine (la corbata).
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.
Page 2 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
 The best way to learn the gender of a noun is to learn the definite article (el,
la) along with the noun. Although you can't easily predict the gender of most
nouns, and the endings of nouns do not always clearly identify their gender,
the article is a reliable clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.
Gender of Nouns: Grammatical
Although grammatical gender is not inherent in most nouns, the following mnemonic device
might help you make a good guess (but remember that there will be exceptions to these
rules):
–L–O–N–E–R–S are usually masculine.
–D–IÓN–Z–A and –IE–MBRE are usually feminine.
USUALLY MASCULINE
Nouns ending in –l
Masculine
Exception
el papel
la catedral
el control
la piel
el mineral
Nouns ending in –o
Masculine
Exception
el libro
la mano
el carro
la foto
el mundo
Nouns ending in –n
Masculine
Exception
el examen
la sien
el flan
el plan
Nouns ending in –e
Masculine
Exceptions
el príncipe
la parte
el traje
la leche
el postre
la gente
USUALLY FEMININE
Nouns ending in –d
Feminine
Exception
la realidad
el césped
la actitud
la pared
Nouns ending in –ión
Feminine
Exception
la tradición
el avión
la confusión
el camión
la unión
Nouns ending in –z
Feminine
Exception
la vez
el lápiz
la raíz
el arroz
la nariz
Nouns ending in –a
Feminine
Exceptions
la casa
el día
la gracia
el mapa
la literatura
Nouns ending in –r
Masculine
el favor
el lugar
el alfiler
Nouns ending in –s
Masculine
el mes
el país
el énfasis
Nouns ending in –ie
Feminine
la serie
la carie
la superficie
Nouns ending in –mbre
Feminine
la costumbre
la legumbre
la cumbre
Exceptions
la flor
Feminine
la tos
Exceptions
el pie
Exceptions
el alambre
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.
Page 3 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
Singular and Plural Nouns
A singular noun refers to one of something. A plural noun refers to more than one of
something. In English, a noun is made plural by simply adding –s or –es to the end of it. For
instance, girl is singular and we assume there’s only one. To show that there’s more than
one, we add an “s” – girls. The “s” made girl plural, girls. In Spanish, there are a few
additional considerations to keep in mind.
Add –s to all nouns ending in an unstressed
vowel.
el perro
la puerta
el juguete
los perros
las puertas
los juguetes
Add –es to nouns that end in a consonant or
y.
el profesor
el animal
el rey
los profesores
los animales
los reyes
When nouns end in –z, change the –z to –c–
and add –es.
la luz
el lápiz
la voz
las luces
los lápices
las voces
la mamá
el ají
el iglú
el menú
las mamás
los ajíes
los iglúes
los menús
When the noun ends in an accented vowel –
á, –é, or –ó, just add –s. However, an
accented –í or –ú needs –es (although in
common spoken usage these nouns also are
pluralized with a simple –s).
Nouns that end in –s tend to vary when forming the plural.
For single-syllable words ending in s,
add –es.
When the word has more than one syllable
and the final syllable (ending in s) is not
stressed, it does not change.
el mes
la res
la tos
los meses
las reses
las toses
el lunes
la crisis
el campus
los lunes
las crisis
los campus
The singular and plural forms of some nouns are the same.
Some nouns have only one form for
el jueves
los jueves
singular or plural, such as the days of the
su sacapuntas
sus sacapuntas
week, compound words, and words ending
buena tesis
buenas tesis
in –is.
Note that you can tell whether these nouns are singular or plural only from the modifiers
(i.e. el, las, este, su, buena, etc.)
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.
Page 4 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
Practice Questions
To test your understanding of the gender and number of nouns, do the following exercises.
A. Gender Hunt: Masculine
Circle the masculine word in each set of nouns.
1. abuela, nuera, nieto, hermana
2. pluma, cuaderno, maestra, profesora
3. casa, mesa, libro, ventana
4. mano, foto, moto, molino
5. idioma, chica, abuela, amiga
6. suerte, papel, mano, catedral,
7. mañana, palabra, tarea, diccionario
8. día, gratitud, decisión, certidumbre
9. mañana, palabra, parabrisas, tarea
10. dificultad, sistema, computadora, fiesta
B. Gender Hunt: Feminine
Circle the feminine word in each set of nouns.
1. chico, hermano, abuelo, hermana
2. auto, ventana, cuaderno, diccionario
3. sistema, tema, planeta, novia
4. número, teléfono, abuelo, mano
5. rey, postre, televisión, día
6. labor, énfasis, favor, camión
7. carro, tarea, viento, mundo
8. tos, ajedrez, país, arroz
9. idioma, cima, programa, película
10. poema, sofá, radio, tema
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.
Page 5 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
C. Gender Identification
Identify the following nouns as masculine or feminine by writing the definite article before
each one. Write el before masculine words. Write la before feminine words.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
apartamento
mano
televisión
gente
abrelatas
mexicana
libro
mineral
radio
examen
pluma
sal
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
avión
serie
día
foto
sien
lugar
persona
universidad
costumbre
Nilo (río)
lápiz
gratitud
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
príncipe
miércoles
eñe
pez
ambición
raíz
poema
mes
familia
flor
problema
crisis
D. Pluralization
Write the plural form of each noun. Make sure to include the definite article. That is, write
los before masculine words, and write las before feminine words.
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________
4. ____________________________
5. ____________________________
6. ____________________________
7. ____________________________
8. ____________________________
9. ____________________________
10. ___________________________
11. ___________________________
12. ___________________________
13. ___________________________
14. ___________________________
15. ___________________________
16. ___________________________
17. ___________________________
18. ___________________________
19. ___________________________
20. ___________________________
chico
silla
sección
animal
vehículo
lápiz
iglú
martes
origen
raíz
res
voz
crisis
rey
río
universidad
planeta
avión
mapa
profesor
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.
Page 6 of 6
Spanish 3 – Unit 1, Lesson 3
Patterns
Study Sheet
E. Pluralization: True or False
Circle True (T) or False (F) on each the following statements about pluralizing a noun.
1. T / F
2. T / F
3. T / F
4. T / F
5. T / F
6. T / F
7. T / F
8. T / F
9. T / F
10. T / F
11. T / F
12. T / F
To form the plural of nouns that end in a consonant, add –es.
To form the plural of nouns that end in an accented –í, or –ú, add –s in formal,
written usage
To form the plural of nouns that end in –n or –s with the last syllable having an
accent mark, just add –es.
To form the plural of nouns that end in a non-accented vowel, add –s.
To form the plural of nouns that end in –n with the last syllable unaccented,
just add –es.
To form the plural of nouns that have a written accent mark to show stress on
a syllable other than the last, add –s or –es and keep the accent mark.
To form the plural of nouns that end in –s and the final syllable is not stressed,
just add –es.
To form the plural of days of the week, compound words, and words ending in
–is, add –es.
To form the plural of nouns that end in an accented –á, –é, or –ó, add –s.
To form the plural of nouns that end in –z, just add –es.
To form the plural of nouns that end in –ión, add –es and drop the accent
mark.
To form the plural of single-syllable nouns that end in –s, add –es.
F. Writing Exercise
Write 6 sentences about your family. Make sure to include definite articles. Use both
singular and plural nouns.
1. _____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________________________
6. _____________________________________________________________________
To Do:
1. For exercises A, B, C, and D, please make sure of two things:
a) that the vocabulary used in these exercises is not too obscure – try to mix in
some vocab from the Unit 1 list and story
b) that the words follow the rules specifically taught in the grammar explanation.
2. Shorten and simplify exercise E – maybe only 5 questions that deal with the very basic
concepts.
3. Change the answer sheet to reflect your changes.
© 2006 Power-Glide. All rights reserved. This material is intended for the exclusive use of registered users only.
No portion of these materials may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the express permission of
Power-Glide.