Special Cases of Spanish Nouns and Gender

When it comes to Spanish nouns and their genders, there are exceptions to the standard “nouns that end in -o are masculine and nouns that end in -a are feminine” idea. They’re important to know so you can follow both spoken and written Spanish. Review the following to get acquainted with these special cases.

Adding or dropping word elements for the feminine form

In Spanish, masculine nouns that refer to people and end in -or, -és, or -n require the addition of a final -a to get the female equivalent. For example, el profesor (the teacher; masculine) becomes la profesora in its feminine form. And if the masculine noun has an accented final syllable, you drop that accent in the feminine form. So el francés (the French person; masculine) becomes la francesa in its feminine form.

You must watch out for two exceptions to this rule. El actor (the actor; masculine) changes to la actriz in its feminine form. Likewise, el emperador (the emperor; masculine) switches to la emperatriz in its feminine form.

Recognizing words with distinct masculine and feminine forms

The following table presents a list of the nouns with distinct masculine and feminine forms. Memorizing this short list can prove very helpful.

Spanish Nouns with Distinct Masculine & Feminine Forms
Masculine Meaning Feminine Meaning
el duque the duke la duquesa the duchess
el héroe the hero la heroína the heroine
el hombre the man la mujer the woman
el marido the husband la esposa the wife
el príncipe the prince la princesa the princess
el rey the king la reina the queen
el yerno the son-in-law la nuera the daughter-in-law

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply


Post Comment

Connect with For Dummies

Sign Up for RSS Feeds

Education & Languages

Inside Dummies.com