El género de los nombres en español: vídeo

Pilar explains the basic rules to know whether a Spanish noun is masculine or feminine, with the most common exceptions. It is the video version of our A1 grammar exercise on gender.

Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine. You can learn the basic rules in this video, in which we explain the genre of the nouns in Spanish.

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Key points

Gender is a grammatical feature of nouns; do not confuse it with the sex of living beings.
As a general rule, nouns ending in -o are masculine and most nouns ending in -a are feminine.
Nouns ending in -e can be either: el coche, la llave.
Exceptions to learn: el día, el mapa, el problema; la mano, la moto.

Frequent doubts

Is la foto an exception?

No: foto is short for fotografía, which is feminine. The same happens with la moto (motocicleta).

Are words ending in -ción feminine?

Yes, all of them: la canción, la estación, la relación.

And words ending in -ma?

Many that come from Greek are masculine: el problema, el tema, el sistema. But not all: la cama, la forma.

Part of Spanish Sessions, the YouTube channel of the teachers at Tilde Madrid — more than 3 million views.

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Key points

Frequent doubts

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