espanol101

➤ Introduction

Gender

In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. Often, nouns end in ‑o if they're masculine and ‑a if they're feminine.

el niño — the boy — [ehl NEE-nyoh]

la niña — the girl — [lah NEE-nyah]

Notice how you use el if the word is masculine and la if the word is feminine.

The apple is a girl?!

It's not just people that are masculine or feminine in Spanish. Objects are, too!

el pan — the bread — [ehl pahn]

la manzana — the apple — [lah mahn-SAH-nah]

Not sure what gender something is? Look at the the! If a word uses el, it's masculine. If it uses la, it's feminine.

I think, therefore...

In English, verb forms change depending on who's doing the action. For example, we say I am, you are, and she is. In Spanish, you do the same thing.

pronouns:

yo — I — [yoh]

tú — you — [too]

él — he — [ehl]

ella — she — [EH-yah]

ser — to be — [sehr]

soy — I am — [soy]

eres — you are — [air-ESS]

es — he is — [ess]

es — she is — [ess]

examples:

Yo soy una niña — I am a girl — [yoh soy OO-nah NEE-nyah]

Tu eres un niño — You are a boy — [too air-ESS OON NEE-nyoh]