Free Spanish Noun Gender Checker: El or La
This Spanish word gender checker tells you whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Type one noun or paste a list of up to 100, and each word shows el or la, un or una, the plural (las ciudades) and the meaning in English. A feminine noun that takes el, such as agua, is marked feminine, so you won't learn it as masculine. It knows 70,885 nouns, and when a word isn't one of them, it makes a guess and marks it as one. One click copies the whole list with its articles. It's free and needs no signup.
How the Spanish gender checker works
Type a Spanish noun into the box, or paste a list of up to 100. Put commas or new lines between the nouns. A short phrase such as fin de semana is checked as one noun, so you can paste it as it stands. If a noun has an article in front, the checker ignores the article and looks up the noun. Type la problema and you get el problema.
Each noun comes back with el or la, un or una, its plural and its meaning in English. For lápiz, that's el lápiz, un lápiz and los lápices. When the list is done, one click copies all of it with the articles in place.
Nouns with two genders or two meanings
Some Spanish nouns change their meaning with their gender, and the checker shows both. El capital is money and la capital is a capital city. El cura is a priest and la cura is a cure. El orden means order or tidiness, and la orden is a command. Others to watch for are el corte "cut" and la corte "court," el frente "front" and la frente "forehead," and el cometa "comet" and la cometa "kite."
A noun can also take either gender with the same meaning, as in el or la mar, el or la azúcar and el or la sartén, and the checker gives both. Of the one-word nouns in the dictionary, 222 work that way. Where a second gender is still used but less often, the checker adds a note: la pijama, also el pijama (less commonly), and el calor, also la calor (colloquial).
Accents, ñ and plurals
You don't need a Spanish keyboard. Type cancion and the checker finds canción, and nino finds niño. When you leave the accents out, the checker also shows any word that's spelled the same without them. Papa gives el papa "pope" and la papa "potato," and the checker adds el papá "dad."
Plurals work too. Type ciudades and you get la ciudad, and lápices gives el lápiz. Every plural takes los or las, so a plural you paste from a text still shows the gender, which it doesn't in French or German. Nouns used only in the plural get a gender as well: las gafas and las vacaciones are feminine.
El agua and other feminine nouns that take el
A feminine noun that starts with a stressed a takes el and un in the singular: el agua, un águila, el hambre. It stays feminine all the same. The plural is las aguas, and an adjective after it is feminine, as in el agua fría. The checker shows el for these nouns and marks them feminine.
Our dictionary has 71 of these nouns. The Spanish noun gender rules guide explains when a stressed a calls for el and when it doesn't.
Words that aren't in the dictionary
A word the dictionary doesn't have can still get an answer. If its ending points firmly to one gender, the checker gives that gender and marks the answer as a guess, so you know to check it. It also tells you how often the rule holds. An unknown word ending in -dad gets la, because 1,487 of the 1,489 nouns ending in -dad in the dictionary are feminine. The Spanish noun gender rules guide lists the ending rules with their counts and the exceptions worth learning.
Where the genders come from
The dictionary holds 70,885 Spanish nouns from English Wiktionary, through kaikki.org. Of the one-word nouns with one gender, 32,437 are masculine and 25,413 feminine. Masculine is the more common gender, at about 56 nouns in 100, which makes el a slightly better guess than la and still a poor one on its own.
Some nouns follow the person meant. A student is el estudiante if he's a man or boy and la estudiante if she's a woman or girl, and 4,182 one-word nouns in the dictionary work that way. Where a person noun has a feminine form of its own, the checker shows it: doctor, feminine doctora.
Where Wiktionary ties a meaning to some places, the checker says so. La computadora is marked as used in Latin America, and las gafas as used in Spain.
A Spanish gender checker for vocabulary lists
The checker works as a gender finder for a single word, but it's made for lists. Paste the nouns from a textbook chapter, or from a text you're reading, and one click copies them back with their articles, ready for flashcards or a vocabulary sheet. Where el comes before a feminine noun, the copy marks it, as in el agua (f), so you won't have to look the noun up twice.
To practice the genders, the Spanish gender quiz tests you on 2,447 everyday nouns and shows the rule behind each answer where there is one. To see which endings decide el or la, and which nouns break each rule, read the Spanish noun gender rules. For the verbs in the same lesson, try the Spanish verb conjugation quiz or print the Spanish verb conjugation worksheets. If you teach more than one language, the der die das checker and the French gender checker work the same way for der, die or das and le or la, and the Italian article checker gives il, lo, la or l'.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Spanish gender checker free?
Yes. There's no account to make and nothing to install.
How many words can I check at once?
You can check up to 100. Put commas or new lines between them. A short phrase such as fin de semana is checked as one noun. If a word has an article in front, such as la problema, the article is ignored and the checker shows the right one: el problema.
Is it el agua or la agua?
It's el agua, but agua is feminine. A feminine noun that starts with a stressed a takes el and un in the singular, so it's el agua and un agua, just as it's el hambre and un águila. The noun stays feminine all the same: the plural is las aguas, and an adjective after it is feminine, as in el agua fría. The checker shows el and marks the noun feminine.
Do I need to type accents?
No. Cancion finds canción, and nino finds niño. If the word without accents is a different word too, you see both: papa gives el papa "pope" and la papa "potato," and the checker adds el papá "dad."
What if I type a plural?
The checker finds the singular and its gender. Type ciudades and it gives la ciudad, and lápices gives el lápiz. Every Spanish plural takes los or las, so the plural shows the gender too. Nouns used only in the plural still get a gender: las gafas and las vacaciones are feminine.
Why does a word show two articles?
There are three reasons. Some nouns change their meaning with their gender: el capital is money and la capital is a capital city. Some take either gender with the same meaning, such as el or la mar. And some follow the person meant, such as el estudiante for a man or boy and la estudiante for a woman or girl.
What if a word isn't in the dictionary?
If its ending points firmly to one gender, the checker gives that gender and marks it as a guess. It also says how often the rule holds: an unknown word in -dad gets la, because 1,487 of the 1,489 nouns ending in -dad in the dictionary are feminine.
Is my text sent anywhere?
The page sends each word on its own, never the text it came from, and nothing is stored.
Licenses and credits
Spanish nouns, genders and plurals come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0).