Sustantivo

Overview

The gender of a noun (sustantivo) is either masculine or feminine. The number of a noun is either singular or plural. A word is invariable if it has neither gender nor number.

Most nouns that end in -o are masculine whereas most nouns that end in -a are feminine. Nouns that end in -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, or -tud are feminine. A noun ending in -ista or -nte can be masculine or feminine, depending on whether it refers to a male or a female. The article indicates the gender of the noun.

A noun that ends in a vowel adds -s to form the plural. Otherwise the noun adds -es. Nouns ending in z change to c when forming the plural.

Definite Article

The definite article (English the) agrees with the noun in both gender and number.

Spanish nouns ending in -a and beginning with a stressed a or ha are feminine, but they take the masculine article el in the singular and feminine article las in the plural.

Indefinite Article

The indefinite article (English a, an, some) agrees with the noun in both gender and number.