<p> Gender</p><p> In English, nouns can be masculine (boy, father, actor), feminine (girl, mother, actress) or neuter—no gender (car, tree, sky).  In Spanish, nouns are only classified as masculine or feminine.</p><p>Masculine nouns generally are those that:  Refer to male beings (el padre – father; el señor – Mr.)  End in –o (el curso – course, el cuaderno – notebook) o Notable exceptions to this rule are la mano (hand) and la foto (picutre/photo) which are feminine  Numbers (el dos)  Days of the week (el martes)  Months of the year (el abril)  Names of rivers, oceans, seas and lakes (el Amazonas, el Pacífico)  Names of mountains and volcanoes (los Andes)  Words that end in -l, -o, -n, -e, -r, -s usually are masculine</p><p>Feminine nouns are generally those that:  Refer to feminine beings (la madre – mother; la señorita – Miss)  End in –a (la escuela – school; la nota – grade) o Notable exception to this rule is el día (day) which is masculine. o Also, there is a group of nouns of Greek origin ending in –ma, –pa, –ta, which are masculine (el problema – problem; el planeta – planet; el mapa – map) o Nouns ending in –ista are masculine or feminine depending on whom they refer. . El artista – (male) artist La artista – (female) artist . El futbolista – (male) soccer player La futbolista – (female) soccer player  End in… o –ión (la estación – station/season) o –dad (la ciudad – city) o –tad (la libertad – liberty) o –tud (la juventud – youth) o –ie (la serie – series) o –umbre (la costumbre – custom) o Words that usually end in –d, -ión, -z, -a usually are feminine.  In addition… o Letters of the alphabet (la a, la b, la c, la ch)</p><p>Because of the “dreaded exceptions,” the best and surest way to know the correct gender of a noun is to learn the definite article (the) with the noun. The masculine definite article is “el” and the feminine definite article is “la.” Articles</p><p>According to Webster’s dictionary an article is a small class of words “that are linked to nouns and that typically have a grammatical function identifying the noun as a noun rather than describing it. In English the definite article is the, the indefinite article is a or an.” For example: the book – “the” indicates a specific book. This is the definite article A book – “a” refers a book in general. This is the indefinite article. </p><p>In Spanish it works the same way. However, there are eight articles. First they are divided into definite and indefinite. Then, masculine or feminine, and lastly they are divided by singular and plural. Use the charts to help. </p><p>Definite articles = “the” Indefinite Articles “a, an, some” Singular Plural “THE” Singular Plural “a, an” “Some”</p><p>Masculine El Los Masculine Un unos</p><p>Feminine La Las Feminine una unas </p>