Gender
  In Spanish, all nouns (people, places and things) are given a masculine or feminine gender. It doesn't mean that these things are more feminine or masculine. Gender is just a way to organize the language.
el círculo (masculine noun)
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la flecha (feminine noun)
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When talking about male and female animals, the gender classification of the language follows the scientific classification:
el pato
male duck
la pata
female duck
Masculine nouns will often end in the letter -o, and feminine nouns will often end in the letter -a. However, many words don't end in -o or -a. The easiest way to tell the gender of a noun is to look at the word right in front of it. El is the masculine word for the, and la is the feminine word for the.
la luz (feminine noun)
the light
el pez (masculine noun)
the fish
In Spanish, there are 4 words for the, depending on the gender and number of the noun.
Notice in the chart that there are 2 masculine, 2 feminine, 2 singular and 2 plural words for the. That because when you have a plural noun, the word the is also plural. We'll cover that more in another grammar lesson.
Take a look at the words from 1.1J and 1.1K. Notice the words los, las, el, and la? All those words mean the.
Examples:
la forma
the shape
las formas
the shapes
el número
the number
los números
the numbers
When you want to say that you have a certain number of things, or that they're your things, drop the word the.
Example:
dos formas
2 shapes
mi color favorito
my favorite color
Change the gender
If you know the word for a male animal, for example duck - el pato - and you want the word for the female animal, follow these steps:
Therefore, the way to say female duck is la pata.
More information:
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