Vocabulario
Vocabulario
- Genre – género
- Number – número
- Article – artículo
- Noun – sustantivo
- Adjective – adjetivo
- Masculine – masculino
- Feminine – femenino
- Plural – plural
- Singular – singular
Noun/Sustantivo
- A noun is a person, place or thing. In Spanish we identify nouns by their gender: masculine or feminine.
- In the case of gender, nouns, are NOT seen by Spanish speakers as having male or female attributes.
- It is just a grammatical feature, masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
- When nouns refer to living creatures, it’s easy to choose the correct masculine or feminine form of the noun, based on the gender of the creature. Usually, nouns ending in “o” are masculine and nouns ending in “a” are feminine.
Masculine singular nouns/Sustantivos singulares masculinos
Most nouns that end in “O”, “N”, “R”, “S”, “E”, “L” are masculine.
- banana/plátano
- mango
- durazno
- pepino
- ajo
- pavo
- ejote
- salmón
- cordero
- cerdo
Exceptions of SOME nouns that do not follow this common rule: many nouns that do not end in -o but are masculine:
- arroz
- tomate
- aceite
- azúcar
- Jarabe de maíz
- elote
- brócoli
- repollo
- cereal
- Grano (avena, arroz, trigo, etc)
Feminine singular nouns/Sustantivos femeninos singulares
Most nouns that end in “A”, “DAD”, “TAD” “ED” are feminine.
- manzana
- naranja
- uvas
- fresa/frutilla
- avena
- almendras
- mantequilla
- crema
- sal
- pimienta
These are some exceptions. These nouns can be used in both gender masculine and feminine.
- la joven- el joven
- la patriota- el patriota
- la espía- el espía
- la pianista- el pianista
- la guía- el guía
- la mártir- el mártir
Number/Número
| La papa- las papas
El limón- los limones La espinaca- las espinacas El comino- los cominos La cebolla/cebollín- las cebollas /los cebollines La sandía- las sandías La lechuga- las lechugas El pescado- los pescados El taco- los tacos La salsa- las salsas
|
To make a noun plural:
- add-s if it ends in a vowel, a,e,i,o,u
- Example, la tortilla-las tortillas
- add -es if it ends in a consonant
- Example, el limón-los limones
- add -es if it ends in í or ú
- Example, el ajonjolí-los ajonjolíes
- add -ces it it ends in -z (eliminate the -z first)
- Example, la nuez- las nueces
Remember The article must agree with the noun in number as well.
Actividad 1
Please write down the genre of these nouns, masculine or feminine.
Articles/Artículos
Next you will find a poem written in Spanish by Gabriela Mistral. Born in Chile, Mistral was well known “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”.
- In small groups, the students will have the opportunity of analyze the poem and answer the following questions:
- What is the theme of the poem?
- Can you name words that are related with food?
- What is the sentiment found between the lines of the poem?
- What do you think the author was trying to evoke in her readers mind?
- Make a list of articles in the poem (the articles must be in Spanish)
‘Pan’
Dejaron un pan en la mesa,
mitad quemado, mitad blanco,
pellizcado encima y abierto
en unos migajones de ampo.
[…]
Huele a mi madre cuando dio su leche,
huele a tres valles por donde he pasado:
a Aconcagua, a Pátzcuaro, a Elqui,
y a mis entrañas cuando yo canto.
[…]
Como se halla vacía la casa,
estemos juntos los reencontrados,
sobre esta mesa sin carne y fruta,
los dos en este silencio humano,
hasta que seamos otra vez uno
y nuestro día haya acabado…
Gabriela Mistral
- Articles are small but important common words that come before specific and general nouns, in English, they’re words like “the” and “an.”
- Definite and indefinite articles in Spanish are words like el, la, los, las, lo, un, una, unos and unas.
Video gramatical
Additional explanation. Explicación adicional Los artículos
Now is your turn to practice. Good luck!
- Actividad 2
Let’s practice! Please choose the indefinite or definitie article for each of these nouns.
- Actividad 3