First, let’s have a look at the most important endings:

Most nouns of masculine gender (masculino) have the ending “o”:

• el libro (book)
• el año (year)
• el tiempo (time)

While most feminine nouns (femenino) end in “a”:

• la semana (week)
• la comida (food, lunch)
• la ventana (window)

There are only a few exceptions to this rule that you need to remember:

Important: Nouns with the ending “-ma” always fall into the category of exceptions, because usually these are words of Greek origin that retain their original (masculine) gender: el diploma (diploma), el dilema (dilemma) etc.

Now that we know the basic rule, let’s add some extra endings to it to help you categorize all other Spanish words into masculine and feminine:

Remembering all possible word endings at once is difficult (and unnecessary). The key to success is paying attention to the gender of every new word you are learning. Try to memorize nouns together with their article ( el día , la casa).

Some endings don’t reveal the gender of the word. For example, the ending “e” can occur in both masculine and feminine nouns: el coche (car), la noche (night).

The endings “-te” and “-ista” can be either masculine or feminine, depending on the meaning:

• el cantante (male singer) – la cantante (female singer)
• el periodista (male journalist) – la periodista (female journalist)

If you wish to form a feminine noun from a masculine noun, in most cases you will need to add the ending “а”:

However, there are also other endings used in the formation of feminine words: -esa, -isa, -ina, -triz.