grammar.nouns.gender-people-professions
Gender for people and professions
Most professions inflect (el doctor / la doctora, el abogado / la abogada); -ista and -ante stay invariable (el/la periodista); usage for some titles still varies by country.
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Explanation
Nouns for people and professions usually have both a masculine and a feminine form. The common patterns: -o → -a (el médico / la médica, el abogado / la abogada), -or → -ora (el profesor / la profesora, el director / la directora), and a consonant + -a (el juez / la jueza, el español / la española).
Nouns ending in -ista, -ante, and -ente are invariable — only the article changes: el/la periodista, el/la artista, el/la estudiante, el/la gerente, el/la cantante.
Some feminine forms are now standard almost everywhere (la presidenta, la jefa, la ingeniera); others still fluctuate by country and register (la juez vs la jueza, la médico vs la médica). When unsure, the inflected feminine is the form the RAE endorses.
Examples
The (woman) engineer presented the project.
Region: global
My dentist is very good.
Region: global
The engineer and the architect presented the plan.