Introduction
Have you ever wondered why a table is feminine and a book is masculine in Spanish? Today I’ll explain when we use the articles EL and LA, I’ll show you which words are masculine and which are feminine. Welcome to the world of grammatical genders in Spanish! You’ll be surprised to learn the gender of some things. And I have prepared a quiz for you to practice at the end, don’t miss it.
Let's start with the basics.
In Spanish, every noun has a gender, either masculine or feminine. And you need to know the gender because the adjectives and articles that accompany a noun have to match with it. “El” is the article for masculine nouns and “La” is the article for feminine nouns.
Generally, if a word ends in 'o', it’s masculine, like 'el libro' (the book), and if it ends in 'a', it’s feminine, like 'la mesa' (the table). For nouns that refer to persons or animals that really have a gender, they have both versions.
La abuela (Grandma)
El abuelo (Grandpa)
El gato (Male cat)
La gata (Female cat)
But it’s not always like this for the rest of nouns. Pay attention to this list of endings for each gender.
In general, nouns that end with these terminations are masculine and use “el”.
-o: we already saw this one. El perro (The dog)-aje: El equipaje (The luggage)
-ar -or: El lugar (The place) El ordenador (The computer)
-án -én -ín -ón -ún (with accent): El capitán (The captain) El Edén (The Eden) El cojín (The cushion) El camión (The truck) El atún (The tuna)
-és: El interés (The interest)
-ate -ete -ote: El combate (The combat) El juguete (The toy) El bigote (The moustache)
-ama -ema: El programa (The program) El problema (The problem)
And nouns that end in these are feminine and use “la”.
-a: the legendary
-a. La cama (The bed)
-ción -sión: La canción (The song) La ilusión (The illusion)
-dad -tad: La ciudad (The city) La libertad (The freedom)
-ez -eza: La vejez (The oldness) La pereza (The laziness)
-ed: La sed (The thirst)
-tud: La actitud (The attitude)
But what about words that don’t follow these endings? Let’s see some of the exceptions that might confuse you. And keep reading cause coming up next I’ll tell you something very important...
But first, if you are struggling a little with Spanish grammar, I recommend you download our Free Study Guide, in which we guide you step by step while you learn Spanish on your own.
Okay, there are some words, usually words that come from Greek, that end in -o and are feminine or that end in -a and are masculine. In the name of Spanish, I am so sorry about this. Here are some examples:
El día (The day)
El mapa (The map)
El planeta (The planet)
El poema (The poem)
La foto (The photograph)
La mano (The hand)
La radio (The radio)
La moto (The motorcycle)
These irregularities show why memorization isn’t enough. Spaniards learn the genders just by listening to Spanish when they grow up. If you listen to a lot of Spanish and read a lot it will become natural for you too. I have some vlogs speaking slow Spanish that would be a great listening practice.
SPANISH VLOG with subtitles: A Unique Spanish Tradition
I ate nothing but less than 1€ food in Spain for 24 hours
Ok so now let’s learn how changing 'el' to 'la' with some words can change the whole meaning of them.
There are not many words that do this, but it’s important that you know. Don’t forget to stay with me till the quiz at the end.
El cura - La cura (The priest - The cure) So for example we have “el cura”, which means “the priest” and “la cura”, which means “the cure”.
El cometa - La cometa (The comet - The kite)
El capital - La capital (The money - The capital)
El coma - La coma (The coma - The comma)
El corte - La corte (The cut - The court)
El final - La final (The end - The championship game in a tournament)
El mañana - La mañana (The future - The morning)
And one thing, EL and LA are the singular articles. Do you know which are the plural ones? It’s LOS and LAS.
El beso - Los besos (The kiss - the kisses)
La flor - Las flores (The flower - The flowers)
And remember that adjectives have to match the gender and number of the noun too.
La casa bonita (The beautiful house)
El jardín bonito (The beautiful garden)
Las casas bonitas (The beautiful houses)
Los jardines bonitos (The beautiful gardens)
Before the quiz, just one more thing that you will love. If a feminine noun starts with an a- that has the stress of the word, the strong vowel, in singular we use “el” instead of “la” so it sounds better. That’s what happens with “El agua” (The water). It is feminine but we use “el” so it sounds better. “La agua”, 2 As in a row, doesn’t sound good. But in plural we say “las aguas” because we have an S in the middle. The same with “El águila”. El águila - Las águilas (The eagle - The eagles)
Now that you’re mastering genders, are you ready to put your knowledge to the test? Let’s do a quick quiz to review what we’ve learned today.
EL or LA? I say the noun, you say the article.
mesa (The table)
sol (The sun)
__ doctor (The doctor)
__ chupete (The pacifier)
__ presión (The pressure)
__ mapa (The map)
__ foto (The photography)
__ timidez (The shyness)
__ oro (The gold)
Answers:
La
El
El
El
La
El
La
La
El
How many did you get right? Leave it in the comments.
Conclusion
Now you know when to use el or la, but do you know exactly when to use tú or usted? Foreigners usually address me using “usted” but I feel very uncomfortable when they do because I feel very old and strange. So I went to the streets of Spain to interview Spanish people to show you how the Spaniards use tú and usted. Don’t miss it out!
