We use some words called nouns to name a person, animal, object, place or idea. For instance, boy, table, dog, park and love are nouns. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. In other words, living things and objects can be feminine or masculine. Although it does not mean that there are male or female things, the nouns referring to males (for instance, a male animal) are masculine and nouns that refer to females are normally feminine.
Because it can be confusing for students to know the gender, in this post we are going to study some rules to know which the gender of a noun is. We are going to present those rules with some examples.
Feminine nouns
- Most of the nouns ending -a
casa, máquina, mesa, taza, historia, camisa
Cama
Jirafa
Rosa
2. Some nouns ending in -e:
madre, clase, leche, sangre.
3. Nouns ending in -ie, -ies, -icie:
serie, caries, calvicie, barbarie.
4. All the nouns ending in -sion, -ción, ez, dad
-sión: ilusión, mansión, comprensión
-ción: imaginación, canción, sanción, recepción
-ez: estupidez, timidez, delgadez
-dad: soledad, bondad, maldad, verdad
La mansión
5. Some nouns ending in -tad, -zón, -tud, -tumbre
-tad: libertad, amistad
-zón: razón, sazón
-tumbre: costumbre
6. The nouns ending in -triz
actriz, cicatriz
7. Some nouns ending in other consonants:
mujer, flor, labor, sien, sartén, región, crisis, tos, res, cruz, col, sal, miel, piel.
La miel
8 Some nouns ending in -o:
radio, mano, foto(grafía), moto(cicleta)
La moto
Masculine nouns
- Most of the nouns ending in -o
perro, saco, cesto, niño, patio, año, abanico, fuego, libro, queso, suelo, patio.
2. Most of the nouns ending in consonant:
juez, arroz, lápiz, balón, pan, camión, león, corazón, buzón, árbol, sol, reloj.
El arroz
El árbol
3. Nouns ending in -or:
asesor, traidor, actor, tractor, color, calor, temor.
Los colores
4. Some nouns ending in -a:
clima, cometa, día, diploma, drama, enigma, fantasma, idioma, mapa, planeta, poema, programa, síntoma.
La cometa
5. Nouns ending in -ema
problema, dilema, tema, sistema
6. Nouns to name colors and days
el rosado, el negro, el martes, el sábado
7. Most of nouns ending in -e
padre, nombre, postre, poste, hombre, traje, garaje, viaje
8. Some nouns ending in -u
espíritu, menú, bambú
Brave Spanish 
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