Jun 23 2004

Gender, Singular versus Plural

Published by at 12:00 am under Quick Overview of Grammar

Adjective endings in Spanish must be in agreement with the nouns they modify in both gender (masculine vs. feminine) and number (singular vs. plural), e.g. La casa es blanca. (The house is white.) Las casas son blancas. (The houses are white.) El carro es blanco. (The car is white.) Los carros son blancos. (The cars are white.)

Nouns that refer to males or those ending in ‘o’ or ‘e’ are usually masculine such as, toro (bull), padre (father), hijo (son) and carro (car).

Nouns that refer to females, or those which end in an ‘a’ are usually feminine, e.g., puerta (door), chica (girl) and  muchacha (girl).

Exceptions include: la mano, el día, el mapa, el agua and el programa.

To make a noun plural simply add an ‘s’ to the noun if it ends in a vowel or ‘es’ if it ends in a consonant. If it ends in a ‘z’, first change the ‘z’ to ‘c’ and add ‘es’ (e.g. vez – veces).

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