Gender & articles

Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine . Gender is not about biology — it is a grammatical category that affects articles (el/la), adjectives , and sometimes meaning (el capital = money; la capital = capital city).

Most nouns ending in -o are masculine; most ending in -a are feminine. But hundreds of common nouns break the pattern, so you cannot rely on endings alone.

The definite article means the . It must agree in gender and number with the noun.

Indefinite articles mean a , an , or some . They also agree in gender and number.

Plural rules apply to nouns and articles together:

• Noun ends in vowel → add -s : casa → casas, libro → libros
• Noun ends in consonant → add -es : papel → papeles, reloj → relojes
• Noun ends in -z → change to -ces : lápiz → lápices, pez → peces
• Some nouns drop the accent in plural: joven → jóvenes, inglés → ingleses
• Articles change: el → los, la → las, un → unos, una → unas

Spanish has only two mandatory contractions. They appear whenever a or de is followed by the masculine singular article el :

a + el → al (to the)
de + el → del (of/from the)

There is no contraction with la, los, las : a la playa, de la casa, a los niños.

Some feminine nouns take the masculine article el when stressed on the first syllable and starting with a or ha (el agua, el hacha). The adjective stays feminine: el agua fría .

Other nouns simply break the -o/-a rule — learn them with their article.