O.k. if you guessed d, you re well on your way to becoming a grammar guru. As you know, nouns usually refer to:

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1 Page 1 of 6 Introduction Choose the best answer. Nouns are. a) a rare but dangerous breed of leeches found in the Amazon. b) what boys talk about in the locker room. c) the coolest fad in Hollywood next to sequins. d) a category of words that according to your sixth grade English teacher refer to people, places, things, or ideas. O.k. if you guessed d, you re well on your way to becoming a grammar guru. As you know, nouns usually refer to: People: Benito Juárez, Gloria Estefan, Pablo Picasso, etc. Places: casa, universidad, México, etc. Things: coche, comida, libro, etc. Ideas: libertad, justicia, verdad, etc. Just as in English, nouns in Spanish can be either singular or plural. However, unlike English, Spanish nouns also have gender they are masculine or feminine. Sometimes gender is obvious: madre is feminine, padre is masculine. This is called natural gender. But sometimes gender makes no logical sense: mesa is feminine while libro is masculine. This is called grammatical gender. This Activity reviews how to remember what nouns are masculine and what nouns are feminine. It also reviews the rules on how to make singular nouns plural. Gender of Nouns: Natural Gender is very important in Spanish. In fact, all nouns in Spanish are categorized according to their gender: masculine or feminine. Natural gender is obvious. For example, el hombre (the man), el yerno (the son-in-law), and el caballo (the horse referring to a male horse) are male living creatures. So these words are masculine. The same is true on the other side. That is, la mujer (the woman), la nuera (the daughter-in-law), and la yegua (the mare) are female living creatures. So these words are feminine. However, not all gender is so easy to identify. For non-living things, gender has nothing to do with biology, but rather grammar. How's that? To answer this we'll have to take a closer look. Identify the gender of the following words: Book, Cup, Picture, and Shirt Give up? Well, because there is no inherent masculine or feminine quality about any of these objects, guessing the gender of these non-living things is hit and miss. But what about words like "dress" and "necktie"? Since dresses are worn by women, shouldn't they be feminine? And since neckties are worn by men, shouldn't they be masculine? The answers to both of these questions are "no." "Dress" is actually masculine (el vestido) and "necktie" is actually feminine (la corbata).

2 Page 2 of 6 The best way to learn the gender of a noun is to learn the definite article (el, la) along with the noun. Although you can't easily predict the gender of most nouns, and the endings of nouns do not always clearly identify their gender, the article is a reliable clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Gender of Nouns: Grammatical Although grammatical gender is not inherent in most nouns, the following mnemonic device might help you make a good guess (but remember that there will be exceptions to these rules): L O N E R S are usually masculine. D IÓN Z A and IE MBRE are usually feminine. USUALLY MASCULINE USUALLY FEMININE Nouns ending in l Nouns ending in d el papel la catedral la realidad el césped el control el mineral la piel la actitud la pared Nouns ending in o Nouns ending in ión el libro el carro el mundo la mano la foto la tradición la confusión la unión Nouns ending in n Nouns ending in z el examen el flan el plan la sien la vez la raíz la nariz Nouns ending in e Nouns ending in a el príncipe el traje el postre s la parte la leche la gente la casa la gracia la literatura el avión el camión el lápiz el arroz s el día el mapa Nouns ending in r el favor el lugar el alfiler Nouns ending in s el mes el país el énfasis s la flor la tos Nouns ending in ie la serie la carie la superficie Nouns ending in mbre la costumbre la legumbre la cumbre s el pie s el alambre

3 Page 3 of 6 Singular and Plural Nouns A singular noun refers to one of something. A plural noun refers to more than one of something. In English, a noun is made plural by simply adding s or es to the end of it. For instance, girl is singular and we assume there s only one. To show that there s more than one, we add an s girls. The s made girl plural, girls. In Spanish, there are a few additional considerations to keep in mind. Add s to all nouns ending in an unstressed vowel. el perro la puerta el juguete los perros las puertas los juguetes Add es to nouns that end in a consonant or y. When nouns end in z, change the z to c and add es. When the noun ends in an accented vowel á, é, or ó, just add s. However, an accented í or ú needs es (although in common spoken usage these nouns also are pluralized with a simple s). el profesor el animal el rey la luz el lápiz la voz la mamá el ají el iglú el menú los profesores los animales los reyes las luces los lápices las voces las mamás los ajíes los iglúes los menús Nouns that end in s tend to vary when forming the plural. For single-syllable words ending in s, add es. When the word has more than one syllable and the final syllable (ending in s) is not stressed, it does not change. el mes la res la tos el lunes la crisis el campus los meses las reses las toses los lunes las crisis los campus The singular and plural forms of some nouns are the same. Some nouns have only one form for singular or plural, such as the days of the week, compound words, and words ending in is. el jueves su sacapuntas buena tesis los jueves sus sacapuntas buenas tesis Note that you can tell whether these nouns are singular or plural only from the modifiers (i.e. el, las, este, su, buena, etc.)

4 Page 4 of 6 Practice Questions To test your understanding of the gender and number of nouns, do the following exercises. A. Gender Hunt: Circle the masculine word in each set of nouns. 1. abuela, nuera, nieto, hermana 2. pluma, cuaderno, maestra, profesora 3. casa, mesa, libro, ventana 4. mano, foto, moto, molino 5. idioma, chica, abuela, amiga 6. suerte, papel, mano, catedral, 7. mañana, palabra, tarea, diccionario 8. día, gratitud, decisión, certidumbre 9. mañana, palabra, parabrisas, tarea 10. dificultad, sistema, computadora, fiesta B. Gender Hunt: Circle the feminine word in each set of nouns. 1. chico, hermano, abuelo, hermana 2. auto, ventana, cuaderno, diccionario 3. sistema, tema, planeta, novia 4. número, teléfono, abuelo, mano 5. rey, postre, televisión, día 6. labor, énfasis, favor, camión 7. carro, tarea, viento, mundo 8. tos, ajedrez, país, arroz 9. idioma, cima, programa, película 10. poema, sofá, radio, tema

5 Page 5 of 6 C. Gender Identification Identify the following nouns as masculine or feminine by writing the definite article before each one. Write el before masculine words. Write la before feminine words. 1. apartamento 13. avión 25. príncipe 2. mano 14. serie 26. miércoles 3. televisión 15. día 27. eñe 4. gente 16. foto 28. pez 5. abrelatas 17. sien 29. ambición 6. mexicana 18. lugar 30. raíz 7. libro 19. persona 31. poema 8. mineral 20. universidad 32. mes 9. radio 21. costumbre 33. familia 10. examen 22. Nilo (río) 34. flor 11. pluma 23. lápiz 35. problema 12. sal 24. gratitud 36. crisis D. Pluralization Write the plural form of each noun. Make sure to include the definite article. That is, write los before masculine words, and write las before feminine words. 1. chico 2. silla 3. sección 4. animal 5. vehículo 6. lápiz 7. iglú 8. martes 9. origen 10. raíz 11. res 12. voz 13. crisis 14. rey 15. río 16. universidad 17. planeta 18. avión 19. mapa 20. profesor

6 Page 6 of 6 E. Pluralization: True or False Circle True (T) or False (F) on each the following statements about pluralizing a noun. 1. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in a consonant, add es. 2. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in an accented í, or ú, add s in formal, written usage 3. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in n or s with the last syllable having an accent mark, just add es. 4. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in a non-accented vowel, add s. 5. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in n with the last syllable unaccented, just add es. 6. T / F To form the plural of nouns that have a written accent mark to show stress on a syllable other than the last, add s or es and keep the accent mark. 7. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in s and the final syllable is not stressed, just add es. 8. T / F To form the plural of days of the week, compound words, and words ending in is, add es. 9. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in an accented á, é, or ó, add s. 10. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in z, just add es. 11. T / F To form the plural of nouns that end in ión, add es and drop the accent mark. 12. T / F To form the plural of single-syllable nouns that end in s, add es. F. Writing Exercise Write 6 sentences about your family. Make sure to include definite articles. Use both singular and plural nouns To Do: 1. For exercises A, B, C, and D, please make sure of two things: a) that the vocabulary used in these exercises is not too obscure try to mix in some vocab from the Unit 1 list and story b) that the words follow the rules specifically taught in the grammar explanation. 2. Shorten and simplify exercise E maybe only 5 questions that deal with the very basic concepts. 3. Change the answer sheet to reflect your changes.