La regla de género y número

Rules of Noun Genders:

Okay, let’s get the ball rolling with nouns. We already know that nouns in Spanish are either feminine or masculine. We use the article “el” for masculine nouns and “la” for feminine nouns.

So the question becomes, “How do we know if the noun staring back at us is feminine or masculine?”

Well, for living things it’s much easier because they actually have true genders. So you call a male professor “el profesor,” and a female one, “la profesora.” You call a male cat “el gato,” and a female one, “la gata.” But what about cars, books, tables and chairs that don’t have sexual orientations? How do we know if they’re masculine or feminine? Answer: Look at the last letter of the word.

The “La” Words (Feminine)

Words that end in “a,” “d,” “z,” “ión” and “umbre” are usually feminine.

Words ending in “a“

• La manzana (apple)
• La piscina (pool)
• La cabeza (head)
• Exceptions: Some words that end in “-ma,” “-pa,” and “-ta,” like el clima, el mapa, el planeta that are Greek in origin.]
•  Words ending in “d” (including the “-dad,” “-tad,” “-tud” families)
• La salud (health)
• La ciudad (city)
• La libertad (freedom)
• La juventud (youth)
• Words ending in “z” ( including the “-triz” and “ez” families)
  • La actriz (actress)
  • La vejez (old age)
  • La emperatriz (empress)
  Words ending in “ión” (the “-cion,” “-sión,” “-gión” families)
  • La estación (station)
  • La profesión (profession)
  • La religión (religion)
  Words ending in “umbre”
  • La costumbre (custom)
  • La pesadumbre (sorrow)
  • La lumbre (fire)
  Words that were originally feminine in form, but have been shortened over the years.
  
• la disco, from “la discoteca” (disco)
• la foto, from “la fotografía” (photography)
• la moto,  from “la motocicleta” (motorcycle)
• la tele, from “la televisión” (television
• The “El” Words (Masculine)
• Words that end in “o,” “e,” accented vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) and consonants (except “d,” “z” and the “ión” family) are masculine.
• Words that end in “o”
• El dormitorio (bedroom)
• El carro (car)
• El banco (bank)
• Words that end in “e” (except “-umbre,” some “-ie” and “-ente”) 
• El verde (green)
• El catorce (fourteen)
• El equipaje (the luggage)
• Words that end with accented vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú)
• El sofá (couch)
• El café (coffee)
• El rubí (ruby)
• El champú (shampoo)
• Words that end in consonants (except “d,” “z” and the “ión” family)
• El país (country)
• El amor (love)
• El exámen (test)
• El corazón (heart)

• Rules of Pluralization

• Wait a minute! Did you notice something in the first grammar lesson? Look at the words again.
  The nouns were all in their singular form.
  But what if you wanna talk about “books” and not just a “book”? What if you wanna describe many people, and not just one “man”? What good is a noun if it doesn’t reflect the true number of objects that exist?
  Let’s remedy that, shall we?
  Here we’ll perform magic, and with the blink of an eye, one will turn into many, and singular nouns will be transformed into their plural cousins.
  In order to do that, you will have to change two things:
  

  1. Change “el” → “los” or “la” → “las”
  2. Change the noun into its plural form, according to the rules.

  Here are the rules (Notice again that they have everything to do with the letters at the end of the word):
  A. If the noun ends in a vowel, add “s.”
  

  • El libro → los libros (books)
  • El gato → los gatos (male cats)
  • La casa → Las casas (houses)
  • La manzana → las manzanas (apples)

  B. If the noun ends in a consonant, add “es.”
  

  • El papel → los papeles (papers)
  • El rey → los reyes (kings)
  • La ciudad → las ciudades (cities)
  • La estación → las estaciones (stations)

  C. If the noun ends in a “z,” change “z” → “c” and add “es.”
  

  • La actriz → las actrices (actresses)
  • La luz → las luces (lights)
  • La vez → las veces (times)

  D. If the noun ends in “-ión,” add “es” (Don’t forget to drop the written accent on the “ó”!)
  

  • La sección → las secciones (sections)
  • La televisión → las televisiones (televisions)
  • La conversación → las conversaciones (conversations)

  E. When the group you are referring to contains a mix of both males and females, use the masculine plural form.
  

  2 hermanos (brothers) + 2 hermanas (sisters) = 4 hermanos (siblings)

  1 gato (male cat) + 9 gatas (female cats) =  10 gatos (cats)

• Rules of Contraction and Conjunction

• The Spanish are smooth talkers. No, I don’t mean that they can sweep a woman off her feet with words, (although that may very well be the case). What I mean is that they employ techniques that make the words roll smoothly off the tongue.
  That’s where contractions and conjunction changes come in. They make Spanish sound so slick, and they can also make you sound so cool.
  Interested?
  I bet you are.
  Contractions in Spanish involve two prepositions: “a” and “de.”
  

  a = to, at, from, by, on, for, upon

  de = of, about, on, because of, by, at

  Here is the one rule for contractions:
  

  When “a” or “de” comes before the masculine article “el,” the two are contracted.

  a + el = al

  de + el = del

  So if we want to say “John got on the train,” we have [Juan subió a] + [el tren], which together is:
  

  Juan subió al tren.

  Likewise, to say “It’s the neighbor’s car,” we’d have [Es el carro de] + [el vecino], which together is:
  

  Es el carro del vecino.

  Rolls off the tongue better, right?
  C’mon say it with me, “Contractions!”
  Now let’s move to conjunctions. These are words used to link other words, phrases and clauses. Here we’re interested in the Spanish words for “and” and “or”:
  

  y (and)

  o (or)

  Here are the rules:
  A. If “y” is followed by a word that begins or sounds like “i,” then “y” changes to “e.” (This is for good reason, because “y” and “i” are so similar-sounding.)
  

  [Padre y] + [hijo] is: Padre e hijo (Father and son)

  [Cruel y] + [inhumano] is: Cruel e inhumano (Cruel and inhumane)

  Try pronouncing them without the conjunction changes, and you’ll understand why the Spanish wisely changed the “y” to “e.”
  B. If “o” is followed by a word that begins or sounds like “o,” then the conjunction becomes “u.”
  

  [Sujeto o] + [objeto] is: Sujeto u objeto (Subject or object)

  [Ayer o] + [hoy] is: Ayer u hoy (Yesterday or today)

  So you wanna sound cool? Master these contractions and conjunctions and you will be a step closer to that silky smooth Spanish fluency.

 juegos con masculino o femenino:

http://www.primaria.librosvivos.net/archivosCMS/3/3/16/usuarios/103294/9/lengua5EP_ud5_genero_numero/frame_prim.swf

http://www.primaria.librosvivos.net/archivosCMS/3/3/16/usuarios/103294/9/4EP_leng_ud4_ai01_cas/frame_prim.swf