Spanish grammar

Everything you didn't want to know!

Gender and Number

One aspect of the Spanish language which is considerably different from English is the concept of gender. In Spanish nouns (people, places or things) are assigned a "gender" meaning that they are considered either male or female. In English all nouns are neutral, being that gender basically does not exist. This can be one of the trickiest areas to master for English-speakers learning a Latin language.

The concept of number does exist in English and is not as hard to master. Nouns can either be singular (a house) or plural (the houses). It is similar in Spanish.

In Spanish, the gender and number distinctions affect which article you will use. In number this is similar to English - in the example above the article "a" is used in singular and "the" in plural" (you would never say "a houses"!). Spanish articles are the following:

ENGLISH	SPANISH
the / a [singluar, masculine]	el
the / a [singular, female]	la
the [plural, masculine]	los
the [plural, female]	las

Gender Tips

Generally, nouns that end in the letter "a" are female, and nouns that end in the letter "o" are male. For example:

MALE	FEMALE
el baño (the bathroom)	la puerta (the door)
el caro (the car)	la computadora (the computer)
el gobierno (the government)	la televisora (the television) (also called "la tele")
el hecho (the fact)	la tasa (the mug)

Some exceptions

Of course, there are many excpetions. Some nouns do not end in either "o" or "a". Some end in "a", but are really male (el programa - the program) some end in "o" but are really female (la mano - the hand).

Number

Like English nouns in Spanish also have a number - either singular or plural. Thus "las manos" means "the hands" [female, plural]. The article you use MUST be in agreement with the gender and the number. You would NEVER hear "la manos". No, no, no!!!

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Pronouns
Verb conjugation
Verbs
Gender and number
Adjectives
Adverbs
Phrases
Putting it together
Punctuation tips