Although it is seldom possible to predict with certainty whether a given Spanish noun is of masculine or feminine gender, Spanish has numerous guidelines that can usually be followed.
Key Takeaways: Spanish Noun Gender
- Nouns ending in -a, -ción, -ía, or -dad are usually feminine.
- Nouns ending in -o, an accented vowel, -or, or -aje are usually masculine.
- Names of rivers, lakes, and oceans are usually masculine; names of mountains are usually feminine.
The most well-known rule or guideline is that nouns ending in -o are masculine and those ending in -a are feminine, but there are numerous exceptions to this gender rule, especially for those ending in -a. Some of the exceptions are listed below.
Following are some other guides to gender determination. Note that many words have definitions in addition to those listed:
Feminine Suffixes
Nouns ending in certain suffixes are usually feminine. They include -ción (usually the equivalent of "-tion"), -sión, -ía (usually the equivalent of "-y," although not in the diminutive sense), -za, -dad (often used like "-ty"), and -itis ("-itis").
- la nación (nation)
- la intervención (intervention)
- la hospitalización (hospitalization)
- la ocasión (occasion)
- la tensión (tension)
- la economía (economy)
- la taxonomía (taxonomy)
- la probreza (poverty)
- la felicidad (happiness)
- la caridad (charity)
- la mastitis (mastitis)
- la meningitis (meningitis)
Masculine Endings
Nouns of Greek origin ending in -a, often -ma, are nearly always masculine. Most of these words have English cognates.
- el problema (problem)
- el drama (drama)
- el poema (poem)
- el tema (subject)
Nouns ending in an accented vowel are usually masculine.
- el sofá (sofa)
- el tabú (taboo)
- el rubí (ruby)
Nouns with certain other endings are usually masculine. These include -aje (usually the equivalent of "-age"), -ambre, and -or. An exception is la flor (flower).
- el coraje (courage)
- el mensaje (message)
- el espionaje (espionage)
- el hambre (hunger)
- el calambre (cramp)
- el calor (heat)
- el dolor (pain)
- el interior (interior)
Masculine Infinitives
Infinitives used as nouns are masculine.
- el fumar (smoking)
- el cantar (singing)
- el viajar (traveling)
Months and Days
Months and days of the week are masculine.
- el enero (January)
- el septiembre (September)
- el martes (Tuesday)
- el jueves (Thursday)
Letters and Numbers
Letters are feminine while numbers are masculine. One way to remember this is that letra is feminine while número is masculine.
- la d (d)
- la o (o)
- el siete (seven)
- el ciento (100)
Abbreviations and Shortened Words
The gender of abbreviations and acronyms typically matches the gender of the main noun of what the shortened version stands for.
- la ONU (the O stands for Organización, which is feminine)
- los EE.UU. (United States; estados (states) is masculine)
- las FF.AA. (armed forces; fuerzas is feminine)
- la NASA (NASA; the word for agency, agencia, is feminine)
- el FBI (FBI; buró, the word for bureau, is masculine)
Words that are a shorter form of another word or of a phrase retain the gender of the longer word or of the main noun in the phrase.
- la moto (motorcycle; the word is a shortened form of la motocicleta)
- la disco (disco; the word is a shortened form of la discoteca)
- la foto (photo; the word is a shortened form of la fotografía)
- la bici (bicycle; the word is a shortened form of la bicicleta)
- un Toyota (a Toyota. The masculine may be used here as a short form of un coche Toyota, as coche, the word for "car," is masculine. However, una Toyota may refer to a Toyota pickup truck, because the common word for "pickup" is the feminine camioneta.)
- la Alcatraz (the word for "prison," prisión, is feminine)
Compound and Two-Word Nouns
Compound nouns formed by following a verb with a noun are masculine.
- el rascacielos (skyscraper)
- el dragaminas (minesweeper)
- el guardarropa (clothes closet)
- el tragamondedas (slot or vending machine)
Two-word nouns, which are unusual in Spanish, carry the gender of the first noun.
- el kilowatt hora (kilowatt-hour)
- el sitio web (website)
- el año luz (light-year)
- la mujer objeto (sex object)
- la noticia bomba (bombshell news story)
Chemical Elements
With the exception of la plata (silver), names of the chemical elements are masculine.
- el flúor (fluorine)
- el cinc (zinc)
- el hidrógeno (hydrogen)
Geographical Names
Names of rivers, lakes and oceans are masculine because el río, el lago and el océano, respectively, are masculine.
- el Danubio (the Danube)
- el Amazonas (the Amazon)
- el Titicaca (Titicaca)
- el Atlántico (the Atlantic)
Names of mountains are usually masculine, because el monte (mountain) is masculine. An exception is that the Rockies are usually referred to as las Rocosas or las Montañas Rocosas.
- los Himalayas (the Himalayas)
- el Cervino (the Matterhorn)
- los Andes (the Andes)
Names of islands are usually feminine because la isla (island) is feminine.
- las Canarias (Canary Islands)
- las Azores (Azores)
- las Antillas (West Indies)
Company Names
Names of companies usually are feminine, because la compañía (company) is feminine, as are sociedad anónima (corporation), corporación (corporation), and empresa (business). This rule is not consistently followed, however, and some well-known companies (such as Google) are referred to as either masculine or feminine.
- la Microsoft (Microsoft)
- la ExxonMobil (ExxonMobil)
- la Nestlé (Nestlé)
Imported Words
The default gender for foreign words adopted into the language is masculine, but a feminine gender is sometimes acquired if there's a reason for doing so. Thus foreign nouns that end in -a sometimes become feminine, as do some words related in meaning to a Spanish feminine word.
- el marketing (marketing)
- la web (the Web or World Wide Web; the feminine is usually used because the Spanish words red and teleraña, words for "web" and "network," respectively, are feminine)
- el internet, la internet (both genders are used)
- los jeans (jeans)
- el rock (rock music)
- el software (software)
- el show (show)
- el champú (shampoo)
- el bistec (beefsteak)
- la pizza (pizza)
