How to Know El or La: Spanish Noun Gender Rules

Masculine is the more common gender in our dictionary. Of the one-word nouns with one gender, 32,437 are masculine and 25,413 feminine, so about 56 in 100 are masculine. Another 222 take either gender with the same meaning, such as el or la mar, and 4,182 follow the person meant, such as el or la artista and el or la estudiante. Every ending count in this guide is of one-word nouns with one gender, and a noun counts under its longest ending, so canción counts under -ión, not under -n. To look up a single noun, or a list of them, use the Spanish gender checker.

Feminine endings that take la

Eight endings point to la. Three of them, -tud, -triz and -tad, hold for every noun in our dictionary that has them, and -dad misses only twice in 1,489. Even the weakest of the eight, -umbre, holds 18 times out of 20, as in la costumbre. The table shows each feminine ending with an example and how often it holds: how many of the nouns with that ending are feminine, out of all the nouns in our dictionary that end that way.

The -a ending has the most nouns and the longest list of exceptions. Of the 19,206 nouns in our dictionary that end in -a, 18,556 are feminine. The everyday exceptions include el día, el mapa, el tema, el planeta, el clima, el fantasma, el drama, el mediodía, el trauma, el vodka, el profeta, el gorila and el yoga. Several of them are Greek words in -ma, which have a section of their own below. Others, such as el cura and el papa, share their spelling with a feminine noun, and you'll find them under nouns with two genders.

Nouns in -ión take la 3,535 times out of 3,633, and -ción alone holds 3,185 times out of 3,192. The everyday exceptions are el avión, el camión and el anfitrión. For -sis, which holds 477 times out of 497, learn el análisis.

Masculine endings that take el

Eight endings point to el. Three of them, -or, -aje and -o, hold more than 99 times in 100, and even the weakest, -l, holds 1,303 times out of 1,381, more than 9 in 10. The table shows each masculine ending with an example and how often it holds: how many of the nouns with that ending take el, out of all the nouns that end that way.

Among the everyday nouns in our quiz, the -o ending has five exceptions: la mano, la foto, la radio, la disco and la moto. Most of them are short for a longer feminine word. La foto is short for la fotografía, la moto for la motocicleta and la disco for la discoteca, and a shortened word keeps the gender of the full word.

Watch the i in -ión. Nouns in -ión take la, but other nouns in -ón take el, 1,107 times out of 1,141, so it's la canción but el corazón. The everyday exception is la razón. Other nouns in -n take el too, as in el pan, though la orden and la imagen are feminine.

The -or and -r endings have few everyday exceptions: la flor and la labor for -or, and la mujer for -r. The -l ending has the longest list of the eight: la señal, la cárcel, la piel, la miel, la sal, la moral, la postal and la cal. La capital, la final, la central and la terminal are feminine too, and each shares its spelling with a masculine noun.

Endings that hold most of the time: -e, -s, -oma, -ema, -ie and -z

Six endings hold most of the time, but not often enough to bet on. Treat them as first guesses.

Most nouns ending in -e are masculine: 2,684 of the 2,981, about 9 in 10, as in el coche. Among the everyday nouns in our quiz, though, the split is 128 masculine to 39 feminine, about 3 in 4. The feminine ones include la noche, la gente, la madre, la muerte, la suerte, la clase, la sangre, la calle, la llave, la mente, la nave, la base, la carne, la leche, la fuente, la torre, la nieve, la clave, la nube, la frase, la fiebre, la tarde and la parte.

Most nouns ending in -s are masculine: 1,045 of the 1,266, about 8 in 10, as in el mes. The count leaves out nouns in -sis, which have a rule of their own and take la.

Most nouns ending in -oma are masculine, 132 of the 156, as in el idioma, and so are most in -ema, 64 of the 85, as in el problema. The everyday exceptions are la broma and la paloma for -oma, and la crema for -ema.

Most nouns ending in -ie are feminine: 43 of the 62, about 7 in 10, as in la serie.

The -z ending is the weakest of the six. Only 161 of the 265 nouns in -z are feminine, about 6 in 10. La vez, la luz, la paz, la voz, la nariz, la cruz, la raíz and la nuez are feminine, but el pez, el disfraz, el arroz, el lápiz, el maíz and el ajedrez are masculine, so learn the article with every -z noun.

LONERS and DIONZA, tested

Two classroom mnemonics sum up the endings. LONERS says nouns ending in L, O, N, E, R or S are masculine. DIONZA says nouns ending in D, IÓN, Z or A are feminine. We tested both against the one-word nouns with one gender in our dictionary, and against the everyday nouns in our quiz. These counts take every noun by its last letters, including the short nouns the ending tables leave out, so they differ a little from the tables above.

LONERS, for masculine:

• L holds. It's 1,304 masculine to 78 feminine, and 62 to 12 among everyday nouns.
• O holds best of all. It's 18,932 masculine to 76 feminine, and 820 to 5 among everyday nouns.
• N holds once -ión is taken out. That leaves 2,075 masculine to 70 feminine, and 73 to 3 among everyday nouns. With -ión left in, most nouns in N are feminine.
• E leans masculine. It's 3,001 masculine to 370 feminine in the dictionary, but 144 to 44 among everyday nouns, which is where the exceptions pile up.
• R holds. It's 2,648 masculine to 23 feminine, and 117 to 3 among everyday nouns: la mujer, la flor and la labor.
• S leans masculine once -sis is taken out. That leaves 1,049 masculine to 221 feminine, and all 30 everyday nouns in S are masculine.

DIONZA, for feminine:

• D holds only because of -dad, -tad and -tud. D has 1,589 feminine to 78 masculine, but take those three endings out and the rest lean masculine, 76 to 20. Among everyday nouns they go both ways: la salud, la pared, la red, la sed and la merced, but el ataúd, el récord and el césped.
• IÓN holds. It's 3,535 feminine to 99 masculine, and 190 to 3 among everyday nouns: el avión, el camión and el anfitrión.
• Z is the weak letter. It's 186 feminine to 104 masculine, and 11 to 7 among everyday nouns.
• A holds. It's 18,611 feminine to 927 masculine, and 764 to 27 among everyday nouns.

Read together, the two mnemonics hold for most letters. Check for -ión before you apply N, and for -sis before you apply S. D is really -dad, -tad and -tud, and E and Z need the article learned with every noun.

El agua: feminine nouns that take el

Agua is feminine, yet you say el agua. A feminine noun that starts with a stressed a takes el and un in the singular, and our dictionary has 71 of them. Among them are el agua, el arma, el alma, el hambre, el área, el ala, el ave, el habla, el hada, el águila and el hacha.

The noun stays feminine. The plural is las aguas, and an adjective after it is feminine: el agua fría. With un, it's un águila, though una águila is also heard.

Stress decides it. Hambre (HAM-bre) is stressed on the a and takes el, but harina (ha-RI-na) is stressed later and takes la. The same goes for la abeja and la almohada. The names of letters don't follow the rule either: it's la a and la hache.

In the Spanish gender quiz, agua counts as feminine, so the answer is la.

Greek -ma words

Many Spanish nouns in -ma that come from Greek are masculine: el problema, el sistema, el programa, el tema, el clima, el idioma, el poema, el drama, el síntoma and el trauma. They explain several of the everyday exceptions to the -a rule.

But -ma is no rule. Among the everyday nouns in our quiz, 28 that end in -ma are feminine, such as la forma, la cama, la víctima, la broma, la firma and la norma, against 13 masculine. Across the whole dictionary it's 371 masculine to 249 feminine. In everyday Spanish the masculine ones are the shorter list, so learn them by name.

Of the longer endings inside -ma, -grama is the firm one: 76 of the 78 nouns in our dictionary that end in -grama are masculine, as in el programa. The -ema and -oma endings lean masculine, with la crema, la broma and la paloma as everyday exceptions.

Nouns with two genders

Some nouns take either gender with the same meaning. Our dictionary has 222, such as el or la mar, el or la azúcar, el or la internet, el or la maratón and el or la sartén. Others have a second gender that's less common: la pijama can also be el pijama, and el calor is la calor in colloquial speech.

Other nouns change their meaning with their gender. El capital is money and la capital is a capital city. El cura is a priest and la cura is a cure, and el orden means order or tidiness, while la orden is a command. Others are el corte "cut" and la corte "court," el frente "front" and la frente "forehead," el cometa "comet" and la cometa "kite," el papa "pope" and la papa "potato," and el mañana "the future" and la mañana "morning." These pairs explain some of the exceptions in the tables above, such as el cura among the -a nouns and la capital among the -l nouns.

Person nouns follow the person meant: el estudiante for a man or boy, la estudiante for a woman or girl. In our dictionary, 4,182 one-word nouns work that way. The group includes nouns in -ista, such as el or la artista, and in -ante and -ente, such as estudiante.

How to learn Spanish noun genders

Use the rules where they hold, and learn the rest with the article attached.

1. Learn every noun with its article. Put la casa on the flashcard, not casa. Every plural takes los or las, so a plural doesn't hide the gender the way it does in French or German: los libros, las casas.
2. Start with the firm endings. For la, that's -a, -dad, -tad, -tud, -triz and -ión. For el, it's -o, -or and -aje. Learn the everyday exceptions with them: el día and el mapa, la mano and la foto, el avión.
3. Learn the masculine -ma nouns as a group. El problema, el sistema, el programa, el tema and el idioma are masculine, but la forma and la cama are feminine.
4. Treat -e, -s and -z as first guesses. Guess el for -e and -s, and learn la noche, la gente and la calle as you meet them. For -z, learn the article every time.
5. Listen for the stressed a. El agua and el hambre are feminine, so the plural is las aguas and the adjective is feminine: el agua fría.
6. Learn the groups that go by meaning. Days, months, languages (el español) and the names of rivers, seas and oceans are masculine. Letters of the alphabet are feminine: la a, la be.

To practice, the Spanish gender quiz asks for the genders of 2,447 everyday nouns, and its endings set takes only the nouns with an ending rule, along with their exceptions. After each answer it shows the rule, where there is one, and how often it holds. To look up a noun, or a list of up to 100, the Spanish gender checker gives the article, the plural and the meaning, and copies the whole list with its articles for your flashcards. After a few runs of the endings set, el día and la mano stop looking like mistakes.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Spanish nouns, genders and plurals come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0).