Nouns and Articles S1

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Spanish nouns

A noun is a word used to identify people,

animals, places, things, or ideas. Unlike English,
all Spanish nouns, even those that refer to
non-living things, have gender; that is, they are
considered either masculine or feminine. As in
English, nouns in Spanish also have number,
meaning that they are either singular or plural.

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► Generally, nouns that refer to males,

like el hombre, are masculine, while
nouns that refer to females, like
la mujer, are feminine.

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► Many nouns that refer to male beings end in –o or

–or. Their corresponding feminine forms end in –a
and –ora, respectively.

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► The masculine and feminine forms of

nouns that end in –ista, like turista, are
the same, so gender is indicated by the
article el (masculine) or la (feminine). Some
other nouns have identical masculine and
feminine forms.

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► As shown above, certain noun endings are

strongly associated with a specific gender, so
you can use them to determine if a noun is
masculine or feminine.

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► Because the gender of nouns that refer to

non-living things cannot be determined by
foolproof rules, you should memorize the
gender of each noun you learn. It is helpful to
learn each noun with its corresponding article,
el for masculine and la for feminine.

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► Another reason to memorize the gender of

every noun is that there are common
exceptions to the rules of gender. For
example, el mapa (map) and el día (day) end
in –a, but are masculine. La mano (hand)
ends in –o, but is feminine.

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Plural of nouns

► To form the plural add –s to nouns that end in

a vowel. For nouns that end in a consonant
add –es. For nouns that end in z change the z
to c, then add –es.

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► In general, when a singular noun has an

accent mark on the last syllable, the accent is
dropped from the plural form.

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► Use the masculine plural form to refer to a

group that includes both males and females.

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Spanish articles

As you know, English often uses definite

articles (the) and indefinite articles
(a, an) before nouns. Spanish also has definite
and indefinite articles. Unlike English, Spanish
articles vary in form because they agree in
gender and number with the nouns they modify.

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Definite articles

► Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to

the English definite article the. You use
definite articles to refer to specific nouns.

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Indefinite articles

► Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to the

English indefinite article, which according to context
may mean a, an, or some. Use indefinite articles to
refer to unspecified persons or things.

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Provide a definite article for each noun in the first column
and an indefinite article for each noun in the second
column.

1.

_____ chica

2.

_____ chico

3.

_____ maleta

4.

_____ cuadernos

5.

_____ lápiz

6.

_____ mujeres

1.

_____ autobús

2.

_____ escuelas

3.

_____ computadora

4.

_____ hombres

5.

_____ señora

6.

_____ lápices

¿un, una, unos o unas?

¿el, la, los o las?

la

un

Multiple Choice

Choose the appropriate article to match the following noun: ESCRITORIOS

• Un
• Una
• Unos
• Unas

Multiple Choice

Translate: the phones

• los teléfonos
• un teléfono
• unos teléfonos
• el teléfono

Multiple Choice

Choose un, una, unos, unas, for the following word: gatos

• un gatos

• una gatos

• unos gatos

• unas gatos

Multiple Choice

(a) chico

• el

• un

• unos

• la

Multiple Choice

(the) escuela

• la

• el

• un

• una

Multiple Choice

(some) profesoras

• unas

• unos

• los

• las

Multiple Choice

_______ diccionarios

• un

• una

• unos

• la

Explanation Slide...

-a = feminine

Multiple Choice

Fill in the blank with the correct indefinite article

____ mochila

• un

• una

Multiple Choice

Fill in the blank with the correct indefinite article

____ computadora

• un

• una

Explanation Slide...

-o = masculine

Multiple Choice

Fill in the blank with the correct indefinite article

____ libro

• un

• una

Multiple Choice

(the) amigas

• las

• los

• unos

• unas

Multiple Choice

What do definite articles mean in English?

• a

• an

• some

• the

Multiple Choice

What do indefinite articles mean in English?

• a, some

• a, and, some

• the

• a, an, some

Multiple Choice

_______ lápices

• los

• las

• El

• la

Multiple Choice

Definite Article (the)- _____ banderas.

• los
• las
• unos
• unas