Mis partes del cuerpo = my body parts Tus partes del cuerpo = your body parts y sus partes del cuerpo = and his body parts por ejemplo = for instance mis ojos = my eyes tus ojos = your eyes y = and sus ojos = his eyes mi nariz = my nose tu nariz = your nose y = and su nariz = his nose mi boca = my mouth su boca = his mouth y = and tu boca = your mouth su pelo = his hair tu pelo = your hair y = and mi pelo = your hair tus manos = your hands sus manos = his hands y = and mis manos = my hands
2.0 Introduction
Bad news first:
The Spanish divide all their nouns in feminine and masculine.
Not only that they divide the nouns related to persons (or personalities
like my dog - he is really a great guy!), but also chairs
and walls and cars and the sky has a gender in the mind
of a Spaniard.
The good news anyway is that the rule is quite simple.
Words that end with an a
are feminine. Masculine words end with an o
(very often), an e (also
quite often) or with an r.
There are some more cases, to which we will come back later.
With this distinction goes also that there are two
(actually three) definite articles with the Spanish
nouns. Feminine nouns get the (definite) feminine article
la. Masculine nouns
get the (definite) masculine article el.
It is not that difficult so far, is it? In comparison the
English language knows just one definite article the.
Example:
(feminine)
feminine singularla
la
casa= house
feminine
plurallas
las
casas=
houses
Example:
(masculine)
masculine
singular el
el
hombre =
man
masculine
plural los
los
hombres = men
Since the basic logic is so clear (of course there
are some exceptions, but we will have a look at them a
bit later) there is actually no need to search for any
other logic. Please keep in mind that in case you have
studied French or German, the gender in German or French
is NOT automatically the same in Spanish!!
