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Word Gender

Word Gender. Craig Thomas B.A. What is a Noun?. A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea. Person :  John, girl, dentist Place :  garden, university, Venezuela Thing :  book, car, tomato Idea :  liberty, despair, intelligence. Male/Female Words?. Living Beings.

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Word Gender

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  1. Word Gender Craig Thomas B.A.

  2. What is a Noun? A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea. • Person: John, girl, dentist • Place: garden, university, Venezuela • Thing: book, car, tomato • Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

  3. Male/Female Words?

  4. Living Beings The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female.

  5. Living Beings (Spanish) • The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures. • el perro • male dog • la perra • female dog • Boy • El chico • Girl • la chica

  6. What do we notice? Masculine Feminine la gata la perra la chica la abuela • el gato • el perro • el chico • el abuelo

  7. El & La • El and La both mean “The” in Spanish! • elchico (the boy) • lachica (the girl) • elperro (the male dog) • lagata (the female cat)

  8. Masculine or Feminine? • Libro (book) • Escritorio(Desk) • Mesa(Table) • Lampara(Lamp) • Ventana (Window) • Suelo (Floor) • Vestido (Dress)

  9. Changing Gender/Changing Endings Changing Non-Changing Some nouns that refer to people use the same form for both masculine and feminine. These nouns indicate gender by the article (el or la). el estudiantela estudiante el pianistala pianista el artistala artista Masculine nouns that end in a consonant often have a corresponding feminine form that ends in -a. • el profesorla profesora • el doctorla doctora • el señorla señora

  10. More Endings! Nounsthatend in -sión, -ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine. • la televisión • la decisión • la conversación • la habitación • la ciudad • la universidad la dificultad la libertad la actitud la gratitud la certidumbre la muchedumbre

  11. Why should we learn articles? • When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la). There are several reasons for this: • Because you cannot predict the gender of most nouns. • Because not every noun that ends in -o is masculine, and not every noun that ends in -a is feminine. • Because many nouns end in letters other than o or a. • Because the definite article (el, la) is your clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

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