Genders and singular vs. plural

¡Los adjetivos y artículos!

• Articles are words that are linked to nouns and that typically have a grammatical function identifying the noun as a noun rather than describing it. In English, the definite article is the and the indefinite article is a(n).• The book – “the” indicates a specific book. This is the definite

article.

• A book – “a” refers to a book in general. This is the indefinite article.

¿Qué es un artículo?

• In Spanish, it works the same way. However, there are eight articles. First they are divided into definite and indefinite. Then masculine or feminine, and lastly they are singular and plural.

• Definite articles = “the” Indefinite Articles “a, an, some”

Artículos

“THE” Singular Plural

Masculine

El Los

Feminine La Las

Singular“a, an”

Plural“Some”

Masculine

Un Unos

Feminine Una Unas

• In English, nouns can be masculine (boy, father, actor), feminine (girl, mother, actress) or neuter – no gender (car, tree, sky)

• In Spanish, nouns are only classified as masculine or feminine, not neuter.

Masculino vs. femenino

Masculino• Usually ends in…

-l

-o

-n

-e

-r

-s

Femenino• Usually ends in…

-d

-ión

-z

-a

Masculino vs. femenino

• Adjective – a word that describes a noun or distinguishes it from a group of other nouns.

• In English, an adjective comes BEFORE the word it is describing and has one form.• Example: The red car. The red cars.

Before car Same form even though there are more cars.

• In Spanish, an adjective comes AFTER the noun and must agree with it in GENDER and in NUMBER (singular/plural).• Example: El carro rojo. Los carros rojos.

After “car.” Different form in the plural.

¿Qué es un adjetivo?

• Each adjective that ends in an “o” has four forms: masculine, feminine, singular and plural.

• Examples:

• The tall boy = El muchacho alto

• The tall girl = La muchacha alta

• The tall boys = Los muchachos altos

• The tall girls = Las muchachas altas

Género y número  Singular Plural

Masculine Alto AltosFeminine Alta Altas

• Adjectives that end in “e” or a consonant have two forms: singular and plural..

• Examples:

• The smart boy = El muchacho inteligente

• The smart girl = La muchacha inteligente

• The smart boys = Los muchachos inteligentes

• The smart girls = Las muchachas inteligentes

Género y número  Singular Plural

Masculine Inteligente InteligentesFeminine Inteligente Inteligentes

• Me gusta (bailar) = I like (to dance)

• Me gusta mucho (cantar) = I really like (to sing)

• Me gusta más (dibujar) = I like (to draw) more

• No me gusta (correr) = I don’t like (to run)

• No me gusta nada (trabajar) = I don’t like (to work) at all.

• Soy = I am

• Tengo = I have

Extra Vocabulary