El and La: Gender of Nouns

All nouns in Spanish have gender; this means they are either masculine or feminine.

El is the masculine form of the, and is used when talking about one grammatically masculine object, e.g., el primo -- the (male) cousin.

La is the feminine form of the, and is used when talking about one grammatically feminine object, e.g., la prima -- the (female) cousin.

El is the word for the in Spanish that is usually used with words ending in -o, e.g., el primo. Because words ending in -e are also more likely than not to take el, e.g., el puente, if you have to guess whether to use el or la, you are better off using el, but remember that there are many exceptions, e.g., la fuente.

La also means the, and is usually used with words ending in -a, -dad, -tad, -tud, -ción and -sión, e.g., la prima, la cantidad, la multitud, la tradición, la sesión.

Notice that by just changing the final -o to -a, you change the (male) cousin to (female) cousin.


All nouns -- even those which don't have gender in English -- have gender in Spanish. This grammatical gender has no relationship to the concept of male or female.

Of course books and houses are neither male nor female, but in Spanish they, and all other nouns, are grammatically either masculine or feminine.

• el libro (masculine) -- the book
• la casa (feminine) -- the house

Some words have only one form and we use el or la to distinguish between the masculine and feminine gender:

• el guía -- the guide (e.g., guía turístico -- tourist guide)
• la guía -- the guide (e.g., guía telefónica -- telephone book)

• el policía -- policeman
• la policía -- police force, group of policemen

Remember:

Masculine endings are -o and usually -e.

Feminine endings are -a, -dad, -tad, -tud, -ción, -sión and sometimes -e.

Words ending in -e are more likely to be masculine.


Here are exceptions to the above rules which must be memorised:

• el sofá = the sofa
  el planeta = the planet
  el día = the day
  el mapa = the map
  el problema = the problem
  el telegrama = the telegram
  el programa  = the programme
  el sistema = the system
  el poema = the poem
  el tema = the theme
  el clima = the climate
  el idioma = the language
  la mano = the hand
  la radio = the radio

There is a second group of exceptions: feminine nouns that take el.

• el agua = the water
  el águila = the eagle
  el hacha = the hatchet
  el arma = the arm (weapon)
  el ave = the bird
  el hada = the fairy
  el aire = the air

Notice that all of the above words begin with a stressed a- sound (remember, the h is always silent). The above singular nouns, and all others beginning with a stressed a- sound, take el to avoid the final -a of the la from blending with the initial a- sound of the following noun.