Spanish grammar
El vs la: Spanish noun gender explained
Every Spanish noun is either masculine (an el-word) or feminine (a la-word), and that label never changes, even for a chair or a key. The ending is a good guide (-o is usually el, -a usually la) but not a rule, so the habit that pays off is learning each noun with its article. This guide covers the two groups, the matching un and una, the plurals los and las, and the exceptions beginners meet first.
In short
- Every noun is an el-word or a la-word, fixed for life: el libro, la casa. Learn the article with the noun.
- -o is usually masculine and -a usually feminine, but día is el, foto is la, and consonant endings (el hospital, la nariz) have to be learned.
- un and una follow the same split as el and la: un celular, una llave.
- Plurals add -s and the article follows: los libros, las llaves.
- A feminine noun starting with a stressed a takes el in the singular: el agua, but it stays feminine (el agua fría, las aguas).
The -o/-a switch, on people
«maestro» — teacher (a man). «maestra» — teacher (a woman). The same dress-code as buenos/buenas: -o for him, -a for her. «Él es maestro. Ella es maestra.»
Él es maestro
he is a teacher
Ella es maestra
she is a teacher
Me llamo Ana
My name is Ana.
Soy de México
I'm from Mexico
The two sides
Every Spanish noun, even a house, belongs to one of two groups and never switches: LA casa, EL libro. The ending usually tells you (-a words are mostly la-words, -o words mostly el-words), but a few keep their side secret, so learn each noun together with its la or el. This is about the word, not about any person: a table is not female, it is simply a la-word.
El libro
the book
La casa
the house
Bien gracias
fine, thanks
La puerta
the door
'A' picks the same side
UNA llave, UN celular. If it's a la-word it's an una-word; el-words take un. One rule, both pairs — you never learn a word's side twice.
La llave
the key
Una llave
a key
Un celular
a phone
Una silla
a chair
¿Cómo estás?
how are you?
One becomes many
Add -s, and the article grows with it: el libro → los libros, la llave → las llaves. The same -s shows up after a number, «hay dos libros», and los and las ride along with it.
Los cuartos
the rooms
Los libros
the books
Las camas
the beds
Las llaves
the keys
Hay dos libros
there are two books
Hay nueve llaves
there are nine keys
Two words that break the rule
«agua» is feminine — but «la agua» crashes two a-sounds together, so Spanish swaps in «el agua» for the singular. «foto» ends in -o but is short for a longer la-word — the -o lies just this once.
El agua está en la cocina
the water is in the kitchen
El agua
the water
La foto
the photo
Las fotos
the photos
El dinero
the money
Tomorrow — and a word that lied all along
«día», day, ends in -a but is masculine: «el día». That is why the greeting is «buenos días», with buenos and not buenas. It is the most common of the few -a nouns that take el. (And «mañana» means tomorrow, or morning.)
Mañana
tomorrow
Mañana quiero café
tomorrow I want coffee
Es un día bonito
it's a nice day
El día es bonito
the day is nice
El día de la semana
the day of the week
Muy bonito
very pretty
Mañana quiero un café
tomorrow I want a coffee
Masculine or feminine — no shortcut from the ending
«el banco», «el hospital», «el correo» are all masculine, so to the becomes «al» (a + el): «voy al banco». «la farmacia» is feminine: «voy a la farmacia». «hospital» ends in a consonant and is still masculine; for consonant endings the ending is no shortcut, and the word's gender has to be learned with it.
Necesito ir al hospital ahora
I need to go to the hospital now
Voy al correo
I'm going to the post office
Voy a ir al correo mañana
I'm going to go to the post office tomorrow
Voy a ir al correo, y necesito ir al banco también
I'm going to go to the post office, and I need to go to the bank too
Check yourself
Questions from the course. Pick an answer to check it; nothing is saved.
1.Which one means 'I'm going to the post office'?
Practice this in Open Lingo
This page comes from the Open Lingo course. In the app it is a short interactive lesson with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try it.
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