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Articles & Gender

CEFR A1 · Lesson 4 of 11

Every Spanish noun has a gender — masculine or feminine — and the article in front of it always has to match.

Every Spanish noun has a gender — masculine or feminine — and the article in front of it always has to match.

Spotting gender
PatternUsuallyExample
ends in -omasculineel libro, el chico
ends in -afemininela mesa, la chica
common exceptionsel día, el mapa, la mano
Definite & indefinite articles
MasculineFeminine
the (singular)ella
the (plural)loslas
a / anununa
someunosunas

Making nouns plural

  • Ends in a vowel → add -s: libro → libros
  • Ends in a consonant → add -es: profesor → profesores
  • The article changes too: el libro → los libros, la mesa → las mesas
el chico, la chicathe boy, the girl
un perro, una casaa dog, a house
los libros, las mesasthe books, the tables
💡

Quick trick: always learn a noun with its article (la mesa, not just mesa) — that way you never have to guess the gender later.

Practice

Check your understanding

1.Choose the correct article: ___ casa

2.Choose the correct article: ___ libro

3.Plural of "el profesor" is "los ___".

4.True or false: "día" is feminine because it ends in -a.

5.Plural of "la mesa" is "las ___".

6.Choose the correct word for "some": ___ perros

7.True or false: "la mano" is feminine, even though it ends in -o.

8.Plural of "el libro" is "los ___".

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