Guessing gender from the ending

Explanation

The ending of a noun is a strong (if imperfect) clue to its gender. As a baseline, -o is usually masculine (el libro, el dinero) and -a usually feminine (la casa, la mesa), but the more reliable signals are certain longer endings.

Dependable feminine endings: -ción/-sión (la nación, la decisión), -dad/-tad (la ciudad, la libertad), -umbre (la costumbre), -ez (la vejez). These are almost exception-free and cover a huge amount of vocabulary.

Dependable masculine endings: -aje (el viaje, el paisaje), -or (el color, el calor), and most -ma words of Greek origin (el problema, el sistema, el idioma, el tema). The handful that break these patterns is short and memorizable, see the gender exceptions rule.

Examples

Related rules

• Every noun has a gender
• Gender exceptions: la mano, el día, la foto