Learn E-Spanish: basic 2

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Nouns
- Gender of nouns
- Plural of nouns
Articles
- Definite Article:
- Indefinite Article
Adjectives
- Descriptive adjectives
- Limiting adjectives
- Gender of adjectives
- Numeral adjectives
- Possessive adjectives
Possessive Nouns
De Phrases

Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.

- Gender of nouns
In spanish, nouns have gender. You can see some words in english with gender such as actor and actress, waiter and waitress, bull and cow but there are many which don't have gender such as dog, cat, table, etc.
The following rules can be useful, although there are exceptions:

1. Masculine:
• Nouns ending in -o, -e, -n, -r and words of greek origin ending in -ma, -pa.
Examples: libro, dibujante, avión, doctor, programa, mapa.
• Nouns referring to men or male animals.
Examples: hombre, toro.
• The names of mountains and rivers.
Examples: Amazonas, Andes.
• The names of days and months (they are not capitalized).
Examples: lunes, diciembre.
• The names of languages or nationalities are masculine (they are not capitalized).
Examples: español, ingles, frances.
• The names of numbers.
Examples: uno, diez, cincuenta.

2. Feminine:
• Nouns ending in -a, -d, -ción, -sión.
Examples: casa, caridad, salud, canción, profesión,
• Nouns referring to women or female animals.
Examples: mujer, vaca.
• The names of the letters of the alphabet.
Examples: be, ele, zeta.

3. Feminine and Masculine:
• The feminine forms of many nouns are created from the masculine by changing the final -o to -a or adding -a to the final consonant.
Examples: gato – gata, perro – perra, pintor – pintora, escultor – escultora.
• Some nouns can take either gender, depending on whether they refer to men or women.
Examples: joven, artista, estudiante.
You can differentiate them by using the article.
• Some nouns use a single gender to refer to either sex. These are usually the names of animals. In those cases the article is the same for both genders, and we can differentiate the gender writing macho o hembra.
Examples: leopardo macho – leopardo hembra.

- Plural of nouns.
• The plural of nouns is regularly formed by adding -s to words ending in a vowel and -es to words ending in a consonant or “y”.
Examples: Ojo – ojos, rey – reyes
• Nouns ending in the letter -z change it to -c when forming the plural.
Examples: lápiz – lápices.
• Nouns ending in -s use the same form for both singular and plural.
Examples: lunes.

Articles
An article is a set of adjectives used to limit a noun. Articles always agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. The articles are of two sorts: definite articles and indefinite articles.

- Definite Article:
Examples: El lápiz – los lapices, el lunes – los lunes, la casa - las casas, la mesa – las mesas, el joven – la joven, el artista – la artista.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	El	Los
Feminine	La	Las

Note: Groups of mixed gender are always masculine in the plural.
Example:
“the teachers” is a group of women and men, then it is in spanish “los profesores”.
“La persona” is always feminine, even when referring to a man and “la gente” is always feminine.

- Indefinite Article:
Examples: Un lápiz – unos lapices, una casa – unas casas.

	Singular	Plural
Male	Un	Unos
Female	Una	Unas

Practice

Let's choose a phrase and analize it.

Phrase in english	Is it masculine or feminine?	Word in spanish	Is it singular or plural?	What article can we use?	In spanish
The roosters	M	Gallo	P	Los	Los gallos
The hen	F	Gallina	S	La	La gallina
Some nuns	F	Monja	P	Unas	Unas monjas
A priest	M	Sacerdote	S	Un	Un sacerdote
Some kings	M	Rey	P	Unos	Unos reyes
A lion	M	León	S	Un	Un león
	F	Leona	S	Una	Una leona
The duck	M	Pato	S	El	El pato
	F	Pata	P	Las	Las patas
The dolphin	M	Delfín	S	El	El delfín
	F	Delfín	S	La	La delfín
The man and the women	M and F	Hombre and mujeres	S and P	El and Las	El hombre y las mujeres

It is difficult to know the gender of a word which doesn't have gender in English. To know the gender of a word, we have to follow the given rules and look in the dictionary.

Phrase in english	Word in spanish	Is it masculine or feminine?	Is it singular or plural?	What article do we have to use?	In spanish
The table	Mesa	F	S	La	La mesa
The dictionary	Diccionario	M	S	El	El diccionario
Some computers	Computadora	F	P	Unas	Unas computadoras
A book	Libro	M	S	Un	Un libro
The newspapers	Periódico	M	P	Los	Los periodicos
A chair	Silla	F	P	Unas	Unas sillas
Key	Llave	F	S	La	La llave
Pencil	Lápiz	M	P	Los	Los lápices
Tuesday	Martes	M	P	Los	Los martes

Adjectives
An adjective is a word that tells something about a noun. There are two kinds of adjetives:

- Descriptive adjectives refer to some quality or physical state of a noun, they usually go after the noun.

- Limiting adjectives include adjectives of quantity, numeral adjectives, possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, and articles. They usually go before a noun.
In this lesson I will only mention describing adjectives and possesive adjectives.

- Gender of adjectives
When an adjective modifies a noun, it must be the same gender as both the noun and the article.
The following rules will be helpful:

1. Feminine and Masculine:
• The feminine forms of many adjectives are created from the masculine by changing the final –o (singular) and –os (plural) to –a (singular) and –as (plural).
Examples: el libro nuevo – los libros nuevos, la casa nueva – las casas nuevas.
• Adjectives of nationality usually form the feminine by adding –a (they are not capitalized). But if the masculine ends in –e or –i, the feminine is the same.
Examples: el jugador peruano – la jugadora peruana, el profesor japones – la profesora japonesa, el hombre canadiense – la mujer canadiense.
• Other adjectives have the same form for both genders, with a plural ending in -es.
Examples: el hombre feliz – la mujer feliz.

Practice

Let's analize some phrases.

Phrase in english	Is it masculine or feminine?	Adjective in spanish	Is it singular or plural?
The big table	F	Grande	S	La mesa grande
The big dictionary	M	Grande	S	El diccionario grande
An intelligent teacher	M	Inteligente	S	Un profesor inteligente
The intelligent women	F	Inteligente	P	Las mujeres inteligentes
The old newspapers	M	Viejo	P	Los viejos periodicos
Some old chairs	F	Vieja	P	Unas viejas sillas
The green key	F	verde	S	La llave verde
A hard-working man	M	Trabajador	S	Un hombre trabajador
Some hard-working girls	F	Trabajadora	P	Algunas muchachas trabajadoras

- Numeral adjectives
Numeral adjectives indicate quantity and they always go before the noun. When using the adjective “millón”, we must use the preposition “de”.
Examples:

Dos gatos
Cien hombres
Veinte caballos
Tres libros interesantes
Doscientos cuadernos viejos
Un millón de amigos
Diez millones de lapiceros

- Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives indicate ownership or a similar relationship, they answer the question 'Whose?'. They agree in gender and number with the thing possessed. They always go before the noun.

Pronombres	Singular	Plural
Yo	Mi	Mis
Tú	Tu	Tus
El / ella / usted	Su	Sus
Nosotros / nosotras	Nuestro or nuestra	Nuestros or nuestras
Vosotros / vosotras	Vuestro or vuestra	Vuestros or vuestras
Ellos / ellas / ustedes	Su	Sus

“Vuestro” and “vuestra” is commonly used in Spain.
Mi corazón, tu casa, su amistad, mis libros, su clase.

The ending of the possessive adjectives nuestro(a), nuestros(as), vuestro(a), or vuestros(as) depend on the gender of the thing possessed, if it is masculine, it ends in “o” or “os”: and in the other case when it is feminine, it ends in “a” or ”as”.
Example:
Gato is masculine, then “our cat” is “nuestro gato”.
Perra is feminine, then “your dog” is “vuestra perra”.
Libros is masculine and plural, then “our books” is “nuestros libros”.

Practice

Let's analize some phrases.

Phrase in english	Who posseses it?	Is it singular or plural?	Possessive adjective in spanish
My table	Yo	S	Mi	Mi mesa
My dictionaries	Yo	P	Mis	Mis diccionarios
Your dog	Tú	S	Tu	Tu perro(a)
Your friends	Usted	P	Sus	Sus amigos(as)
His newspaper	El	S	Su	Su periodico
Her chairs	Ella	P	Sus	Sus sillas
Your department	Ustedes	S	Su	Su departamento
Their keys	Ellos or ellas	P	Sus	Sus llaves
Our teacher	Nosotros or nosotras	S	Nuestro	Nuestro profesor
Our computers	Nosotros or nosotras	P	Nuestras	Nuestras computadoras
Your radio	Vosotros or vosotras	S	Vuestra	Vuestra radio
Your houses	Vosotros or vosotras	P	Vuestras	Vuestras casas

Now with a descriptive adjective.

Phrase in english	Who posseses it?	Is it singular or plural?	Possessive adjective in spanish
My small table	Yo	S	Mi	Mi mesa pequeña
Your black dog	Tú	S	Tu	Tu perro(a) negro(a)
Their new keys	Ellos or ellas	P	Sus	Sus llaves nuevas
Our modern radio	Nosotros or nosotras	S	Nuestro	Nuestra radio moderna
Your blue backpack	Vosotros or vosotras	S	Vuestra	Vuestra mochila azul
Her three chairs	Ella	P	Sus	Sus tres sillas

Possessive Nouns
Possession can be expressed with the preposition “de”, we can know when to use because of the apostrophe or apostrophe and the letter s ‘s. “De” indicates possession; we'll see more cases when studying the verb to be.

Examples:

El carro de George
la hermana de Juan
el padre de Carlos

De Phrases
In English, nouns often functions as adjectives; in Spanish, a “de” phrase has the same purpose.

Examples:

jugo de naranja
sopa de tomate
estudiantes de universidad

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