Noun Gender in Spanish (Masculine & Feminine)

Level: A1. In Spanish every noun has a gender — masculine or feminine — even for objects that have nothing to do with people. The gender usually decides which article you use (el or la) and how adjectives change. The good news: there is a reliable pattern, with a set of exceptions to learn.

The rule

Gender here is just a grammatical label, not a statement about the real world. A noun is a word for a person, place or thing. The ending often tells you the gender:

• Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine → el libro (the book).
• Nouns ending in -a are usually feminine → la casa (the house).

The article usually signals the gender (though a few feminine nouns take el in the singular, like el agua, and stay feminine). The safest habit is to learn every noun with its article: not libro but el libro, not casa but la casa.

Endings and exceptions

Ending	Usual gender	Examples	Watch out for
-o	masculine	el libro, el perro, el dinero	la mano, la foto (feminine)
-a	feminine	la casa, la mesa, la silla	el problema, el día, el mapa, el sofá (masculine)
-ción / -sión	feminine	la canción, la televisión	—
-dad / -tad	feminine	la ciudad, la libertad	—
-or	usually masculine	el color, el amor	la flor (feminine)

Many nouns ending in -ma that come from Greek are masculine: el problema, el tema, el programa, el sistema.

Example sentences

Each sentence was written for this lesson (not copied from a third-party corpus).

1. El libro es nuevo. — The book is new.
2. La casa es grande. — The house is big.
3. El problema es difícil. — The problem is difficult. (-a but masculine)
4. La mano está fría. — The hand is cold. (-o but feminine)
5. El día es largo. — The day is long.
6. La mesa es blanca. — The table is white.
7. El mapa está en la pared. — The map is on the wall.
8. La ciudad es bonita. — The city is pretty.
9. El color es azul. — The colour is blue.
10. La foto es vieja. — The photo is old.
11. El coche es rápido. — The car is fast.
12. La universidad es famosa. — The university is famous.

Common mistakes

• ❌ la problema → ✅ el problema. Not every -a noun is feminine.
• ❌ el mano → ✅ la mano. Not every -o noun is masculine.
• ❌ la casa blanco → ✅ la casa blanca. The adjective must agree with the feminine noun.
• ❌ el agua frío → ✅ el agua fría. Agua is feminine; it takes el in the singular only because it starts with a stressed a-, but adjectives stay feminine.

Compared with…

• Definite articles (el, la, los, las) — the articles that show gender and number.
• Adjective agreement — adjectives copy the noun’s gender and number.

Both topics are listed in the Spanish grammar section.

Quick recap before the quiz.

Mini quiz

1. ___ libro (the book)
2. ___ mano (the hand)
3. ___ problema (the problem)
4. la casa blanc__ (white)
5. ___ ciudad (the city)

Answers

1. el — -o, masculine.
2. la — exception: mano is feminine.
3. el — exception: problema is masculine.
4. a → blanca — agrees with feminine casa.
5. la — -dad nouns are feminine.

Sources & licensing

• Gender patterns cross-checked with Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
• This topic sits at beginner level (A1) in common course sequencing; the Instituto Cervantes Plan Curricular and CEFR are used as general references, not as a topic-by-topic level ruling.
• Example sentences were written for this lesson; no third-party sentences were copied.

Next

• Back to the Spanish grammar section
• New here? Start with Start Learning Spanish Here