Nouns are words that designate people, places, actions, things, events, ideas, etc... As in English, all Spanish nouns have a number: they are singular or plural. Unlike English, however, all Spanish nouns must have a gender: masculine or feminine.
In many cases the gender of a Spanish noun is obvious: hombre (man) is masculine; mujer (woman) is feminine. In other instances the gender of the noun is not that obvious, and can defy all common sense: "corbata" (tie) is something usually worn by men, but the noun is feminine; whereas "vestido" (dress) is something that women wear but it is a masculine noun. You may think that a "mesa" (table) is not an object with feminine characteristics, but it is a feminine noun nevertheless.
In general, Spanish speakers associate nouns with specific word endings: if a word ends in the letter "a" we assume it is feminine; if a word ends in the letter "o", it is probably masculine. Of course, this is only a general rule, and there are plenty of exceptions. Click here to practice the gender of Spanish nouns.
Since Spanish grammar requires that all words in a sentence agree in number and gender with the noun or pronoun they modify, it is very important that you learn the gender as you learn new words. Noun markers (articles or certain adjectives) will help you identify whether a noun is masculine or feminine, but it is important that you learn the gender independently so you will not make mistakes while practicing with native speakers. A Spanish dictionary can be very helpful in this regard; most good dictionaries indicate (usually with a small 'f' or 'm' next to the word) whether a noun is masculine or feminine.
MAKING NOUNS PLURAL
The rules for making nouns plural in Spanish are fairly simple:
Nouns that end in a vowel must add an -s
libro (book), libros
casa (house), casas
amigo (friend), amigos
vaca (cow), vacas
edificio (building), edificios
coche (car), coches
perro (dog), perros
hermano (brother), hermanos
Nouns that end in a consonant (including "y") must add an -es:
papel (paper), papeles
rey (king), reyes
mes (month), meses
ley (law), leyes
actor (actor), actores
avión (airplane), aviones
tren (train), trenes
hogar (home), hogares
Nouns ending in -z change the -z to -ces:
actriz (actress) , actrices
luz (light), luces
avestruz (ostrich), avestruces
pez (fish), peces
feliz (happy), felices
lápiz (pencil), lápices
Nouns ending in -s (except for those ending in és) do not change to plural:
lunes (Monday), lunes
dosis (dose), dosis
jueves (Thursday), jueves
crisis (crisis), crisis
Exceptions: francés (Frenchman), franceses;
inglés (Englishman), ingleses;
tailandés (Thai), tailandeses.
When there is a group of nouns from both genders, use the masculine plural:
padre y madre: padres
señor y señora: señores
Click here to practice the gender of Spanish nouns.
