Severn Spanish

Nouns I

 

Understanding nouns

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, and ideas/concepts.

Examples:

1. people: man (hombre), woman (mujer), doctor (doctor), judge (juez)

2. places: city (ciudad), island (isla), park (parque), house (casa)

3. things: book (libro), tree (árbol), table (mesa), apple (manzana)

4. ideas/concepts: religion (religión), courage (valor), faith (fe), idea (idea)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nouns in Spanish

Nouns in Spanish have the same function as nouns in English: naming people, places, things, and ideas or concepts. However, the properties of nouns, or their characteristics, are different.

 

Number

 This is one property that is the same in English and in Spanish. In both languages, nouns have number, which means that they can be singular (one) or plural (two or more). 

Examples: chair (silla) vs. chairs (sillas); man (hombre) vs. men (hombres); doctor (doctor) vs. doctors (doctores)

 

In Spanish, there are three easy rules for making most nouns plural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender

Unlike English, however, in Spanish all nouns have gender, meaning they are either masculine or feminine. This means that even words such as árbol (tree) and libro (book) have gender. Examine these lists of nouns, especially the ending letters, and see if you can determine any patterns.

Masculine: libro, papel, diccionario, abuelo, pan, actor, estante, tisú, tío, abogado, bolígrafo, cuarto

Feminine: manzana, nariz, salud, abuela, televisión, canción, casa, pluma, cama, silla, puerta, responsabilidad

 

Did you notice any patterns? If not, that’s okay, because there are some simple guidelines about noun gender that we will go over now. However, gender rules probably have more exceptions than any other rule ever invented, so you will have to be aware of the most common rule breakers. For now, though, we will focus on “normal” nouns. With most nouns, the last few letters will tell you what the gender of the noun is.

Masculine endings:

-o (libro, abuelo, tío, abogado, bolígrafo, cuarto) [by far the most common masculine ending]

any consonant other than -d, -z, or the group -íon (papel, pan, actor)

-e (estante, perfume)

an accented vowel (tisú, sofá)

Feminine endings:

-a (manzana, abuela, casa, pluma, cama, silla, puerta) [by far the most common feminine ending]

-d (responsabilidad, salud)

-z (nariz)

-ión (televisión, canción)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice

Now that you know a little bit about Spanish nouns, try these practice questions.