Building nouns: -ería, -ero, -ista, -ción, -miento

Explanation

Spanish builds new nouns with a set of productive suffixes, and recognizing them gives you both meaning and gender. Places and shops take -ería (panadería 'bakery', librería 'bookshop', ferretería 'hardware store') — all feminine.

People and trades: -ero/-era (cocinero, panadera), -ista (electricista, taxista — invariable), -dor/-dora (vendedor, trabajadora). Actions and results: -ción (construcción), -miento (crecimiento), -ada/-ida (llegada, salida, mordida).

Quality nouns derive from adjectives with -dad (feliz → felicidad), -ez/-eza (rápido → rapidez, bello → belleza), and -ura (alto → altura). The suffix usually fixes the gender too: -ción, -dad, -ería, -ez, -ura are feminine; -miento, -aje, -or are masculine.

Examples

Related rules

• Guessing gender from the ending
• Diminutives: -ito, -ita and friends