A Short Review, What’s a Noun?
Basically, a noun is just a word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. It’s what we use to name and identify stuff like objects, people, animals, places, and concepts. Nouns can be tangible things like chair or cat, or more vague things like love or happiness. And without them, we wouldn’t be able to put together a proper sentence.
Do English Nouns Have a Gender?
Usually, English nouns don’t have a gender. They’re mostly neutral. But, there are some words that refer to a specific gender, like man or woman. In those cases, the gender is usually shown by the word itself, not by grammar.
There are a few gendered nouns that have certain rules, but they’re not that common. Take actor and actress, waiter and waitress, or lion and lioness, for instance. In these words, the female noun has an ess ending.
But, you know, in English, stuff (like table) or ideas (like happiness) are always gender-neutral and we just use neutral words like it for them.
What About Spanish Nouns?
Spanish nouns have a gender, even for things, which is pretty crazy compared to English. People have a male and a female version of the same noun, like abogado for a male lawyer and abogada for a female lawyer.
But when it comes to objects or concepts, it’s trickier because there’s no male or female version for the same thing. Instead, an object is always either masculine or feminine, like mesa (table), which is always feminine.
Different Types of Nouns
In Spanish, we can classify nouns taking into account many different factors. We can group them according to whether they talk about people, animals, or things. Or we can focus on their endings. Or on its regularity or irregularity. And so on!
Let’s start with the following post, which lists a few basic regular nouns: just click here!
