# Nouns ending w/-consonant



## NightJay0044

I'm still on my first chapter is learning all about nouns. I've read that you can make a masculine noun a feminine noun that end with a consonant. 

Is this true since it's what I read? Well if it's so then could someone please simply explain that to me and give me a beginners guide/lesson on changing the masculine noun to a feminine noun if it ends in a consonant?

I hope I made that clear. 

Thanks
Jason


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## Ana_Fi

Well, I don't know if I understood what you meant, but I'll try to answer.
If a noun ends in a consonant, for example 'trabajador', usually you make the feminine form adding an 'a' at the end: 'trabajadora'.
Traidor - traidora
Campeón - campeona
Is that what you were asking?


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## alelifich

NightJay0044 said:
			
		

> I'm still on my first chapter is learning all about nouns. I've read that you can make a masculine noun a feminine noun that end with a consonant.
> 
> Jason


I dont understand what you mean exactly, but I cant tell you that nouns in spanish do have gender. The general rule is to add an "o" or an "a" at the end of the word whether they are masculine or feminine (respectively)

Of course there are some exceptions to the rule.


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## NightJay0044

Sorry for any confusion. I'm trying to say that a noun that ends in a consonant. How do you recognize if you make it feminine or masculine. Because I read that you can make them feminine forms by adding "a" at the end and "la" at the beginning, I dont know if that's only talking about people or certain thing a person does.

okay I'll give you the text that the lessons talks about here it is: 

"Masculine nouns that end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in -a." such as: 

el profesor
la profesora

el doctor
la doctora

el señor
la señora 

See how the masculine turns to feminine? I basically want to know how can you recognize how to change that when it comes to nouns, only with a person or what they do?

Okay I hope that clear it up..

Jason


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## alelifich

Ah! now I got it.
Yes it s like that. Generally if the noun ends in consonant the gender is masculine by default and you have to add an "a" at the end to make it femenine.


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## NightJay0044

Can you do that with any noun then, or does it only require of you doing that when it refers to a person?


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## alelifich

You mean add the or the o? well that is used only when you refer to people, or animals (in general).
But all the time, nouns have gender in spanish, but for example if you re not refering to what I ve said  above you dont have to add anything.
I mean you say "la televisión". The gender of the word is indicated by "la". That it is because television is a feminine noun and it doesnt have a   masculine form. You cant say "el televisiono". I hope I was clear enough.


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## NightJay0044

Alright lets see if I got this right. If you want to change the noun from masculine form to feminine it's only required to do it when it's refering to a living creature in genaral such as a proffession such as "flourist" or "carpenter" or in animal sense "cheetah","cow" or "horse" when your talking about it like that that's when you can form it into a feminine noun?

Gracias amigos
Jason


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## alelifich

For example: the feminine for cat in english is she cat. In spanish the noun is el gato, la gata. El perro, la perra. El león, la leona.

Regarding professions, flourist (Are you refering to the one who sells flowers? becuase that noun is strange, because it doesnt have masculine or feminine , its gender  is determined  by the article "la" or "el" to refer to the gender). But you say doctor, doctora. abogado, abogada. arquitecto, arquitecta.
Also adjectives have gender and that works in the same way.

Some nouns are directly in masculine or feminine and dont dont have another form, and this happens with the example i ve just given. Another example would be "la cama". Cama is a feminine noun which doesnt have a masculine form. You cant say "el camo". (cama meand bed). You wont be able to realise in that cases whether they are masculine or feminine unless you see the article "el , "la" , "un" or "una" before the word. If you dont see those articles you wont realise, in that case you will have to know the word.


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## NightJay0044

okay, i believe I see what your saying, not totally clearly but I'll get it. Just that not sure always when to change the noun to a feminine form. Only when they are talking about creatures in genereal?


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## alelifich

Let´s start from the beginning. Nouns in spanish have gender. You determine the gender by adding an "a" or a "o" at the end of the word whether it is masculine of feminne. Right up to there?
That happens when you refer to people or animals.


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## alelifich

With the word ended in consonant, by default is masculine, so you have to add an "a" to make it femenine". Just as you have posted above.


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## NightJay0044

Any word such as a noun that ends with a consonant you can make it feminine by adding "a" and the "la" before the word.

Yes I understand now about the nouns and how they are masculine and feminine with by adding an "a" or an "o" and for the articles by adding the "la" and the "El" if your talking about the masculine or feminine nouns. Also if they are plural nouns adding the "los" and Las" are the feminine and masculine nouns for the plural usage. 

To get the nouns corresponding to a feminine noun from a masculine noun. You just add an "a" to the end of the consonant of the noun to make it feminine only if it ends in any consonant no matter what the noun is?


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## alelifich

There are other nouns which have only one form possible. The way to realise if they are feminine or masculine is to check the word before. It must be an article: if it is "la" or una" is feminine, if it is "el", los (plural) or un", is masculine. 

(sorry I posted before lo instead of el, i ve just corrected)


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## alelifich

NightJay0044 said:
			
		

> Any word such as a noun that ends with a consonant you can make it feminine by adding "a" and the "la" before the word.
> 
> Yes I understand now about the nouns and how they are masculine and feminine with by adding an "a" or an "o" and for the articles by adding the "la" and the "El" if your talking about the masculine or feminine nouns. Also if they are plural nouns adding the "los" and Las" are the feminine and masculine nouns for the plural usage.
> 
> To get the nouns corresponding to a feminine noun from a masculine noun. You just add an "a" to the end of the consonant of the noun to make it feminine only if it ends in any consonant no matter what the noun is?


Take into account that that rule only goes with people and animals who are the ones who have gender. ( i mean women or men, to illustrate it better)
Things in general have one form possible. The gender is determined by the article


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## NightJay0044

Okay, what if the word doesn't have the article before it, how can you tell if it's masculine or feminine just by what the word means if it doesn't end with an "a" or an "o"?


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## NightJay0044

So nouns that end with a consonant that refer to poeple and animals you may change them to feminine if they are masculine and if they are masculine you can change them to feminine?


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## alelifich

Yes. I can give some examples. In spanish it is compulsory to use the articles, so you are going to realise. The exceptions are very few, generally with technical or specific terms.
Adjectives also have gender.

Examples: Doctor doctora

gato gata

Compré un televisor. (masculine)
Yo miro la televisión (feminine)


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## NightJay0044

Yes if you wish to give some examples that would always be helpful.

Also when using these consonants of nouns of refering to people or animals and when changing them from Masc. to Fem. does that only apply if your talking to a girl or a guy or just if your talking about anything in general whether if your talking to a girl or guy or writing it down you may write whatever you'de like with that?

Jason


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## alelifich

If you re talking in general also, because you have to think about the subject of your tense. Try to analize the sentence. If your subject is feminine, then you will have to add an "a", if your subject is masculine you will have to add an "o".
Ellos son arquitectos . Ellas son arquitectas

A says to b:
Ayer me encontré con el arquitecto. (here he is saying this in general, no matter who is the one who is listening to A, he is refering to the arquitect)

C says to D

Disculpéme señora, ¿es usted doctora?


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## NightJay0044

If your talking to person (A) and your refereing to another person (B) then the person (B) your talking about if your talking about anything he does then you can add the "A" or the "O" dependning on if your refering to a guy or girl and what they do?


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## Ed the Editor

Hi NightJay0044,

If you don't have one, I'd suggest getting a good Spanish/English dictionary, like the _Collins Spanish-English/English-Spanish Dictionary_. The Spanish-to-English listings always include the gender for every noun. You can find good dictionaries at any large bookstore, like Borders or Barnes and Noble.

You could also use the WordReference dictionary: http://www.wordreference.com/. At the top of the page, type the Spanish word you want to know about, choose _Spanish-English_ in the button next to that, and click the _Search_ button.

Good luck in your Spanish studies!

Regards,
Ed


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## alelifich

NightJay0044 said:
			
		

> If your talking to person (A) and your refereing to another person (B) then the person (B) your talking about if your talking about anything he does then you can add the "A" or the "O" dependning on if your refering to a guy or girl and what they do?


You have to analize the SUBJECT of your sentence, whether is masculine or feminine. Only doing that you will realise

A dice a B

A: hola señora B, ¿como está usted?
B: muy bien señor A, gracias por preguntar.
A: ¿sabe lo que me contó el vecino el otro día?
B: no, ¿qué le contó?
A: que se compró un perro nuevo.
B: su hijo está muy contento.


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## NightJay0044

Yeah what you just said kind of went over my head. I can tell you what I understand through all of those..Basically right now I'm just concentrating on nouns and getting them down before I move onto verbs.

WHat do you think should be the order of sequence to learn the best way, should I go from nouns to adjectives to verbs or nouns+verbs+adjectives?



> A: hola señora B, ¿como está usted?
> B: muy bien señor A, gracias por preguntar.
> A: ¿sabe lo que me contó el vecino el otro día?
> B: no, ¿qué le contó?
> A: que se compró un perro nuevo.
> B: su hijo está muy contento.


 
With what you said there. The first line I understand. The second line i do but the 2nd part of the 2nd line i dont. But the rest is kind of over my head. I can't pick out what the setence is saying....


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## alelifich

I suggest that you should start with nouns+verbs+adjectives.
But nouns cannot be studied without verbs. Dont worry about the second line of the second line. It means thanks for asking. But that is too complicated for a beginner. 

The dialogue says:
A:hello Mrs B, how are you today?
B: very well Mr A, thanks for asking.
A: Do you know what the neighbour told me?
B: no, what did he told you?
A: that he had bought a new dog
B: his son is very happy.

Thats the meaning of the sentence. But the dialogue was for you to understand the genders. Do you get that?


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## NightJay0044

I have the basic understanding down yes. Such as masc. and fem. and what the defininte article is, well not all the defininte articles but such as "la" or el". I mean I have to do some more studying. 

But could it be possible say if you were teaching a class and you had a book that you needed to give out to everyone that was only about nouns and everything there was to know about nouns.(end of story)

Would you be able to give me all the necceassary learning skills you would need to know about nouns, like for example start listing them as:

1) Learn how to tell the difference between plural nouns and singular nouns.
2) Learn the different forms of singular and plural nouns.
3) Learn about the defininte articles and indefinite articles that relate to forms.

Such as that, I mean I know there is a lot more, but basically just a chapter coverage on what all your saposed to learn about nouns. IF you could that woudl be way helpful then I could learn one thing at a time..

Gracias,
Jason


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## NightJay0044

Ed the Editor~


> Hi NightJay0044,
> 
> If you don't have one, I'd suggest getting a good Spanish/English dictionary, like the _Collins Spanish-English/English-Spanish Dictionary_. The Spanish-to-English listings always include the gender for every noun. You can find good dictionaries at any large bookstore, like Borders or Barnes and Noble.
> 
> You could also use the WordReference dictionary: http://www.wordreference.com/. At the top of the page, type the Spanish word you want to know about, choose _Spanish-English_ in the button next to that, and click the _Search_ button.
> 
> Good luck in your Spanish studies!
> 
> Regards,
> Ed


 
Hi, yes I actually dont have a spanish dictionary which I need to get one when my budget tells me I can. but other then that I have to improvise right now.But I'll check into in the future. Also yeah I've used the wordReference.com dictionary and other resources there.

It will eventually pay off, a little progress is better then none at all.


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## alelifich

You are going to learn everything but little by little. I think you are going too fast. You want to learn a whole language in a day and spanish is really very difficult. Take your time, understand all the concepts, dont rush.
From now on the only thing I cant tell you is to re read and study what you have learned today and try to practice. I think that in google you can find spanish excercises.
By the by way, regarding the plurals, the general rule is is add and "s" at the end of the word. And to transform the article from "el" to "los"(or un to unos) and from "la" to "las" (or una to unas)


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## NightJay0044

alelifich~



> Yes it s like that. Generally if the noun ends in consonant the gender is masculine by default and you have to add an "a" at the end to make it femenine.


 
With what is said there by "Alelifich" that means that when you refer to only a person or a living being, such as a creature?

Any noun that ends in a consonant is "masculine" by default? 

Then can you change that noun into a specific gender such as masc. or femn.? 

Can you change the ending with a consonant in a noun when refering to a to an object or a thing or is an object and a thing always going to have some type of masc. or femn. form without adding the masc. or femn?

I hope you know where I'm comnig from here, anything you need to know ask first before we proceed any farther. 

Thanks,
Jason


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## runnernet

Words ending in a- are usually femenine (not always) and those ending in -o usually masculine. As for nouns ending in consonant, it depends: "papel" is masculine, "carcel" femenine, "mansion" femenine, "camion" masculine.....they don't follow any rules. You must learn them by heart

I hope I was of any help


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## LnGwStX

Even though this thread is pretty old, I'd like to add something for any new people who come along looking for the same info.  I remember being kind of confused with the whole gender thing myself, since in English we don't have the concept of gender for words.  The only time we even consider it is in reference to occupation (actor/actress, seamstress/seam...ster? Hm.).  Anyway, since I speak a neutered language  as a native, it took me a long time to wrap my head around the gender idea; gender for people and animals made sense - we even have some English carryovers of gender in the animal kingdom (lioness, for example), although more often the females just get referred to by a separate name (hen, rooster; pig, sow; cow, bull; doe, buck).  Gender for things was a little harder to come to terms with, however (until I realized that even in English we genderize some inanimate things -- cars and boats are always female, aren't they?  What's that about?).

Anyway, I remember what helped me the most was separating in my head the concept of gendered nouns for people and animals, which have an actual gender that is being referred to, and gender as a syntactical function of the language.  I thought of it like this: nouns which have a gender outside the language, such as people and animals, can change linguistically by altering the word and its article.  Nouns which have no real gender outside of the function of the language - such as objects or ideas - cannot change - their gender is assigned to them as a function of the language, and the object/idea doesn't change, so neither can its gender.  Of course, there are exceptions; insects have gender in the real world but not in Spanish, and let's not forget when gender changes change meaning (el corte/la corte, for example).  But for the most part, that distinction has served me well in understanding what's going on with gender.

As for how to know a noun's gender, there are rules, and, of course, exceptions:  words ending in a or ion are feminine, but día, alma, problema, sistema, and several others are exceptions you have to learn.  Studying linguistics, specifically, origins of words, helps in understanding the reasons for those exceptions, but you can simply memorize them.  Words ending in o and l are masculine, but there are exceptions here, too (la foto, la moto).  There are other rules, too, but I cant think of them right now.  But my basic advice is this: learn the rules first, dont worry about the exceptions - you'll still be right most of the time.  you will learn the exceptions as time goes on by following the rules and being corrected.  Or just picking it up as you hear/read it.  

One last thing:  not all nouns referring to people can change.  That fact threw me off for a while.  Artista, poeta,  cantante, other words like these, change gender only by changing the article.  Learn the rules for that, too.


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## runnernet

Muy buena explicacion. Gracias. A mi tambien me viene bien


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