Gender of Nouns

In Spanish, as in all Romance languages other than English all nouns have 'gender'. This often confuses first time language learners, but it really is very simple, with a little bit of practice.

All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine	Feminine
El Niño (Son)	La Niña (Daughter)
El Teatro (The Theater)	La Playa (The Beach)
El Dormitorio (The Bedroom)	La Piscina (The Swimming Pool)
El Huevo (The Egg)	La Pelota (The Ball)

To English speakers this may seem a bit bizarre, especially if you didn't study Spanish or French in your schooldays. 

People and animals are also differentiated based on gender in Spanish in a way unlike the English language.

Masculine	Feminine
El Chico (The Boy)	La Chica (The Girl)
El Gato (The Cat)	La Gata (The Cat)
El Perro (The Dog)	La Perra (The Dog)
El Abuelo (Grandfather)	La Abuela (Grandmother)

As you can see from the above table Spanish has 2 words for 'cat', one for a feminine cat, and one for masculine. Also note the word for 'the' also changes depending on the gender of the noun - LA Gata (female cat) EL Gato (male cat).

Grammar Point - In ALL mixed groups the masculine form is used regardless of number: 

5 Female Cats and 5 Male Cats - Los Gatos (The cats, in the masculine form)

100 Girls and 1 Boy - Los Niños (The children, in the masculine form)

This is always the case - 100% of the time. 

So, what do you notice about all the masculine nouns we have learnt so far?

Perro, Gato, Abuelo, Chico?

Yes, they all end in 'O', and the feminine nouns? They all end in 'A' this is USUALLY the case. Please notice the word usually, not always.

Let's have a quick look at some of the exceptions which prove the rule:

Masculine	Feminine
El Dia (The Day)	La Mano (The Hand)
El Mapa (The Map)	La Radio (The Radio)
El Idioma (The Language)	La Foto (The Photo)
El Planeta (The Planet)	La Moto (The Motorbike)

There are, unfortunately, no rules for learning whether a noun in Spanish is masculine or feminine other than learning and remembering, this may at first seem daunting, but trust me, once you get into the swing of things it becomes second nature. 

The best, in fact only advice for learning nouns in Spanish is this - Always learn them with the definite article (el or la) and this will tell you the gender of the word.

Now, practice, practice, practice.