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In Spanish, not just people, but everything in creation has gender!
When you refer to people and animals, understanding gender use in Spanish is easy because gender is a part of their essence — just as with flowers; everyone knows that flowers are pollinated, needing both genders to produce fruit and seeds.
So why not refer to all things that grow with names that are marked by gender? And if things that grow have gender, why not give everything (and every word) that privilege? Many languages spread this gender thing into their universe. English isn't the only exception — it simply belongs to those languages that don't.
A noun's gender conditions everything around it, just as your own gender conditions your lifestyle. For example, in English, the word "piano" has no gender. But in Spanish, the word piano (pee-ah-noh) ends in an o, and can therefore only be male. Consequently, piano has a male definite article before it el piano, (ehl pee-ah-noh) (the piano) or the male indefinite article un piano (oon pee-ah-noh) (a piano).
Lots about articles
In English, you use the articles the and a or an without knowing the subject's gender, or even caring whether a plural or singular word comes after it — very comfortable, but also very vague. However, with Spanish articles, you can point out when you're referring to one or several specific beings or things, and in the same breath, you can specify their gender.
In Spanish, your reward for this precision is variety. It's a "more is better" kind of policy — you have four different ways to say the: "The" can precede "the girl," "the girls," "the boy," "the boys," or any other subject you want to stick in!
- el (ehl) (the male the, singular)
- la (lah) (the female the, singular)
- los (lohs) (the male the, plural)
- las (lahs) (the female the, plural)
And, four ways to say a or an:
- un (oon) (the male a or an)
- una (oo-nah) (the female a or an)
- unos (oo-nohs) (the plural of un)
- unas (oo-nahs) (the plural of una)
So how do you know when to use which article? It's easy. When the noun ends in o — it's male. If a word ends in a, it's female. (Some exceptions to this rule exist, but they're pretty easy to figure out because they follow another rule — the ma, pa, ta rule — which holds that words ending in ma, pa, and ta are likely to be masculine even though a is the last letter.) If the word ends in another letter, you may have a bit of trouble figuring out which gender it is. The easy part to remember is that when you see an "s" at the end of the word, you know the word is plural. Here are some examples:
- el niño (ehl nee-nyoh) (the boy)
los niños (lohs nee-nyohs) (the boys [or the children])
un niño (oon nee-nyoh) (a boy)
unos niños (oo-nohs nee-nyohs) (some boys [or children])
- la niña (lah nee-nyah) (the girl)
las niñas (lahs nee-nyahs) (the girls)
una niña (oo-nah nee-nyah) (a girl)
unas niñas (oo-nahs nee-nyahs) (some girls)
 | Look at the los niños entry in the preceding list and notice that the translation is plural for both "the boys" and "the children." When you have mixed company (both the male and females genders are present), you use the male plural article. So los niños can mean "boys" or "boys and girls." You follow the same pattern with unos. |
Okay, okay, so Spanish and English are both vague in places, you say. And Spanish speakers say, sorry, that's the way it is. Languages, like people, all reserve the right to be vague at times.
Spanish is a melodious language. It doesn't like to have two consonants at the end of a word, so it inserts a vowel between them — as in mujer, mujeres. So when a noun ends in a consonant, before adding the s to turn it into a plural, Spanish inserts an e. Following are some examples:
- la mujer (lah moo-Hehr) (the woman)
una mujer (oo-nah moo-Hehr) (a woman)
unas mujeres (oo-nahs moo-Heh-rehs) (some women)
- el pan (ehl pahn) (the bread)
los panes (lohs pah-nehs) (the breads)
un pan (oon pahn) (a bread)
unos panes (oo-nohs pah-nehs) (some breads)
- el canal (ehl kah-nahl) (the channel)
los canales (lohs kah-nah-lehs) (the channels)
un canal (oon kah-nahl) (a channel)
unos canales (oo-nohs kah-nah-lehs) (some channels)
- el doctor (ehl dohk-tohr) (the doctor)
los doctores (lohs dohk-toh-rehs) (the doctors)
un doctor (oon dohk-tohr) (a doctor)
unos doctores (oo-nohs dohk-toh-rehs) (some doctors)
Adjectives
A noun tells you what you're talking about, and a pronoun tells whom you're talking about. But, adjectives are more fun. They tell you what these things and people are like. Adjectives are the essence of gossip!
When you talk or gossip in Spanish, you're very specific about gender and number. In fact, even adjectives get to show their gender and number.
 | Suppose that you want to say, "I have a white car." In Spanish you say, Tengo un carro blanco (tehn-goh oon kah-rroh bvlahn-koh). (Remember, because it ends in o, carro is masculine. A masculine noun gets a masculine adjective: blanco (bvlahn-koh). |
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