GRAMÁTICA: Masculino/Femenino

EN. One of the most important things that a foreign speaker should learn when studying Spanish is the genre of the words.

In Spanish, unlike English, the words have genre: they can be «girls» (genre feminine, «femenino»), or they can be «boys» (genre masculine, «masculino»).

¿How to distinguish? Well, it can be difficult (because there are exceptions), but we have a trick that use to work:

-If the word ends in «a», it is a feminine word.

e.g. «La montaña» (The mountain), «La casa» (The house)

-If the word does not end in «a», then, it is a masculine word.

e.g. «El papel» (The paper), «El sacapuntas» (The sharpener)

¿How to name words? We can use definite and indefinite articles.

  • DEFINITE ARTICLES = THE (el / la; los / las). e.g. «LA mesa» (THE table); «EL lápiz» (THE pencil).
  • INDEFINITE ARTICLES = A / AN (un/ una; unos/unas). e.g. «UNA hormiga» (AN ant); «UN estuche» (A pencil case).

EXERCISES:

-Choose between «el» and «la».

Game 1

Game 2

Interactive worksheet

-Choose between «un» and «una».

Game 1

-Which one of these words is masculine, and which one is feminine? In this (a little bit difficult) exercise, you can find several exceptions. You should have a notebook to take notes and learn them.

https://www.spanish.cl/Grammar/Games/Sustantivos_Masculinos_Femeninos.htm