NOUNS.
In Spanish, the noun is the principal component of the noun phrase, and usually is preceded by a determiner :
La niña- The girl
Tu silla- Your chair
Este libro- This book
Other times , it may stand alone :
Juan lee un libro – John read a book
Roma es una gran ciudad- Rome is a big city
Noun may appear in the different positions in the sentence
Juan llegó a las tres y media
A las tres y media llegó Juan
Llegó Juan a las tres y media
John arrived at half past three
When the noun take effect as a subject the verb always agree with the noun in terms of number ,and there are masculine or femenine, singular or plural
El hombre anda- The man is walking
Los hombres andan- The men are walking
El niño – Masculine/ singular
La niña- Feminine/ singular
Los niños/ Masculine/ plural
Las niñas/ Feminine/ plural
Common nouns :
Generally are followed by a determiner :
El hombre trabaja mucho – The man works very hard
Proper nouns :
Always the first letter is a capital letter :
José, Luís, Carlos, Cristina, Marta
Also some of proper nouns appear with a determiner such as : Las Vegas, Las Palmas, El Japón, or rivers , mountains and seas, : El Ebro, El Tajo, El Pacífico, etc.
Proper nouns generally are located alone:
Carlos es futbolista- Carlos is a soccer
Le gusta jugar al fútbol- He/ She likes to play soccer
Gender markers in proper nouns :
Nouns that finish in -o (masculine), change into a- for femenine:
Antonio/ Antonia , Francisco/ Francisca
Nouns ending in a consonant in the masculine take an -a in the femenine
Luis/ Luisa , Ángel/ Ángela
Surnames are invariable, and not change
Sr. Puig / Sra Puig
In this case only take the sex of the person to whom they refer.
Gender:
In spanish all nouns have indicators wich show their gender, that is masculine or feminine.
For example as a grammatical gender this is imposed by the language and with no possibility of variation ; like la silla- the chair, la mesa- the table , all nouns that are inanimate grammatically have a gender that cannot be changed
Instead, natural gender have masculine and feminine :
Luís/ Luisa
Antonio/ Antonia
gallo / gallina – cook/ hen
hermano/ hermana- brother / sister
In spanish gender is usually marked by the edning of the word. When ends in -a are normally feminine, and when ends in -o,-e ,or neutral , tend to be masculine
There are also , nouns that are invariable in masculine and in femenine forms, and gender is only marked by the article or other determiner
El dentista-the dentist
La dentista- the dentist
Nouns also have only one grammatical gender, and the adjective is used in order this gender
El pez macho- The male fish
El pez hembra- the female fish
A noun’s gender may also be identified from the gender of other elements wich agree with it
La crisis-crisis
El caos- chaos
Proper names of inanimated objects:
Geographical places tend to be masculine
Mountain- Los Alpes- The Alps
Lakes- El Victoria- Lake Victoria
Rivers- El Mississipi – The Mississipi, El Ebro- The Ebro, El Guadiana/ The Guadiana
Seas- El Pacífico- The Pacific, El Mediterráneo- The Mediterranean
Capes-El Buena Esperanza- The Cape of Good Hope
Gender markers in common nouns :
Animate common nouns :
-o, or -e , become -a in the feminine
novio- novia – groom / bride
vecino-vecina- neighbour
perro-perra – dog
gato-gata- cat
presidente- presidenta- President
-d, -l, -n, -r,-s,-z add an – a in the feminine :
león-leona / lion-lioness
profesor/ profesora- teacher
marqués/ marquesa- marquis/marchioness
But there are also some irregular feminine endings such as :
-esa : conde/ condesa, abad/ abadesa, alcalde/ alcaldesa.
– isa:sacerdote/ sacerdotisa
-ina: rey/ reina
-triz-actor/actriz
Some words not change their form but gender is marked by the article if is masculine and feminine
el joven/ la joven- the young man/ they young woman
El periodista/la periodista- The journalist
El pintor/ la pintora- the painter
Inanimate common nouns
There no exist
general rule for inanimate common nouns, eventhough for example nouns ending in :
-o, -aje, -an, -ambre, -ete, -il,-ón are masculine
El perro, el pelaje, el enjambre, el camión
-a, -cia, ción,-dad, -ez,-eza, -idad, -ie, -ncia,-nza,-sión, -tud, -umbre tend to be femenine
La casa, la avaricia, la accción, la ciudad, la rapidez, la especie, la experiencia, la esperanza, la pasión, la quietud, la muchedumbre
In some cases the meaning of the word, if ends in -o, (masculine ) and -a(femenine), change all the meaning of this word
Bolso (handbag)
Bolsa (bag)
Ramo (bunch)
Rama (branch)
Sometimes the masculine designate a person , and femenine a person or a machine or a place
Tejedor (weaver)
Tejedora (weaver, loom)
Lechero (milkman)
Lechera (churn)
Cochero (coachman)
Cochera (coach house)
With nouns that are invariable, depens on the article they change the meaning :
El cometa (comet)
La cometa (kite)
El capital (economic capital)
La capital (capital city )
El pendiente (earring)
La pendiente (slope)
Days of the week and month of year are masculine
El lunes/Monday
El martes/Thusday
El miércoles/Wednesday
El jueves/Thursday
El viernes/Friday
El sábado/Saturday
El domingo/Sunday
Enero/ January
Febrero/February
Marzo/March
Abril/April
Mayo/ May
Junio/June
Julio/July
Agosto/Agost
Septiembre/September
Octubre/October
Noviembre/November
Diciembre/December
With professions , the masculine indicate the person who do the work , and the feminine the discipline or person:
Músico (musician)
Música (music, female musician)
Gramático(Grammarian)
Gramática (grammar, female grammarian)
Number:
In addition to gender markers, Spanish nouns also have markers to indicate if they are singular or plural
If a noun ends in a vowel, make it plural by addding -s
Libro- libros
Coche-coches
The definite articles (el, la), also change in the plural form
El- Los
La- Las
El libro – los libros
El coche- Los coches
All consonants (except -s) and stressed vowels- except -é – form plural adding an -es
La cruz/ las cruces
If a noun ends in -ión , add -es, and drop the written accent:
La conversación- Las conversaciones
La televisión- Las televisiones
If a noun ends in z , ad -es and change z to c
Cruz- cruces
Lápiz-lápices
If a group of nouns are diferent gender , the use of plural is masculine
s (except words of only one syllable and those with the stress on the last syllable
Is invariable : El martes /los martes
La crisis/ las crisis
El análisis / los análisis
words ending in -s with one syllable or with the final syllable stressed
Form plural in -es
El país/ los países
El mes/ los meses
Nouns only used in the plural :
Some nouns appear almost exclusively in the plural :
Alicates- pliers
Anales- annals
comicios- elections
enseres- belongings
esposas- handcuffs
gafas- glasses
With some words, the plural form may be a noun derived from and ajective or a adverb or a noun only used in the plural as a part of an idiomatic expression :
Alrededores- surrounding area
expectativas- expectations
afueras- outskirts
There are nouns that can appear in plural and singular
Bigotes- bigote / moustache
pantalones- pantalón – trousers
calcetin- calcetines -socks
Tijeras- scissors
Nouns without a plural :
El caos- chaos , la nada- nothingness, nadie- nobody, alguien-somebody, cada- each
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