Gender of Noun

Buenos días chicos,

I hope you are doing well and all of you have revised previous topics and perfected them. I would like to suggest that if you are not able to finish the work during class hour, then you should do it in the evening when you revise the subject. We get only 2 classes in a week and that is very less. I wish we could study spanish everyday. But, no worries, if you and me work together and use the time then we can solve any problem.

Very well, 

Today we are going to start a new yet extremely easy topic. It's called Gender of Noun.

Before we start, all of you open your register and note down the learning outcome of today's topic

Learning outcome : 

At the end of this class, the learner will be able to : 

1) Learn definition of Noun

2) Gender in Spanish

3) Masculine and feminine nouns

4) exceptions 

I guess all of you have written the LO.

Now lets begin

GENDER OF NOUNS

Before we start, lets first read this very simple definition of Noun

A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, animal or idea.

A noun is a kind of word that is usually the name of something.

Person: John, girl, dentist
Place: garden, university, Venezuela
Thing: book, car, tomato
Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

In English, there are 3 genders, Masculine, Feminine and neuter gender

[Note : Neuter gender is a gender that is neither masculine nor feminine. ]

But In Spanish, there only 2 genders, masculine and feminine. It means that all nouns are either masculine or feminine. No neuter gender in spanish.

Masculine	Feminine
el chico - boy	la chica - girl
el jardín - garden	la universidad - university
el libro - book	la revista - Magazine

Now, Let's take a good look at these word

Masculine	Feminine
el gato	la gata
el perro	la perra
el chico	la chica
el abuelo	la abuela

How are all of these masculine nouns alike?

el gato
el perro
el chico
el abuelo

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

All the words have "el" in the beginning and all the words end with "O"

How are all of these feminine nouns alike?

la gata
la perra
la chica
la abuela

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

All the words have "la" in the beginning and all the words end with "O"

Note: “El” and “la” both mean “the.” These two words (el, la) are called “definite articles.” You will learn more about them in a later lesson. 

el chico (the boy)

la chica (the girl)

el perro (the male dog)
la gata (the female cat)

Now let's look at the rule to identify which noun is Masculine and which one is feminine in Spanish language

Another very important important rule : 

Words ending with consonant other than "D" & "Z" are usually masculine

ej :  Ordenador (computer) - masculine

       Lapiz ( Pencil) - feminine

       

PLURAL FORMS OF NOUNS

If a noun ends in a vowel, make it plural by adding -s.

libro: libros

(libro + s)

pluma: plumas

(pluma + s)

chico: chicos

(chico + s)

If a noun ends in a consonant, make it plural by adding -es.

el borrador: los borradores

(borrador + es)

la universidad: las universidades

(universidad + es)

el profesor: los profesores

(profesor + es)

THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY

BUENOS DÍAS Y GRACIAS

ADIOS

                          HOMEWORK EXERCISE                             

Write the name of the following items in Spanish and divide them according to their gender 

 (masculine or feminine)  and make them plural forms

Click ➤➤ https://www.linguee.es (Use this link for online Spanish dictionary)