Learn Spanish Part No 1

Learn Spanish Part No 1

Spanish Nouns

Spanish Grammar is easy and in order to speak and write correctly the language, we need to know the grammatical gender of nouns. Usually in Spanish the nouns are not related with the biological genre. Also, in Spanish the vast majority of nouns are distinct in singular and plural forms.     

In Spanish, you meet three main groups if nouns.

Most of Spanish nouns fall into one of the following categories.

Nouns that end  on - o	Nouns that end in - a	Nouns that end in – e or in consonant
Libro (book), vino (wine)	Casa (house), patata (potato)	Nube (cloud), tacon (heel)
Nouns ending in -o are always masculine	The majority of nouns ending in –a are feminine	Nouns ending in –e or a consonant can be either gender

1. The plural forms of Spanish nouns

The plural form of Spanish nouns ends in – s.

Same examples – The plural of nouns ending in an unstressed vowel. Its very easy, just ad –s to the singular form:

La casa  (the house)     Las casas (the houses)

La tribu  (the tribe)      las tribus (the tribes)

The case, plural form of Spanish nouns ending in a consonant. This is usually obtained by adding – es. This includes words of one syllable or a final stressed syllable ending in – s.    

El olor	Los  olores	Smell / s
El farol	Los faroles	Streetlight / s
El mes	Los meses	Month /s
El autobus	Los autobuses	Bus / buses

The plural of nouns ending in a stressed vowel – This is usually obtained by adding –s, except when the singular form ends  in –I;

El sofa	Los sofas	Sofa / s
El pie	Los pies	foot / feet
El canape	Los canapes	Sofa /s
El domino	Los dominos	Domino / dominoes
El menu	Los Menus	Menu / s

When the ending is - i,  most common words create the plural by adding –es, although some ass only –s :

El israeli	Los israelies	Israeli / s
El aji	Los ajies	Chili pepper / s
El esqui	Los esquis	Ski / s

In this case we can also mention the case of nouns ending in – u which have plural forms in – ucs : tabu / tabues (taboo / s), bamboo / bambues (bamboo / s).        

   

2. Spanish nouns which do not adopt a distinct plural form

In Spanish language exists a number of nouns with a final unstresses syllable ending in – s. and those which end in – x do not change in the plural.

La crisis	Las crisis	Crisis / crises
El virus	Los virus	Virus / viruses
El fax	Los Fax	Fax / faxes

     

3. The plural form of Spanish compound nouns

Compound words consisting of a verb or preposition and a plural noun have no distinct plural form:

El / los salvapantallas (screensavers/ s)

El / los paracaidas  (parachute/s)

In compounds forming single words in which the last element is not plural, a normal plural is formes.

El mirasol          los mirasoles  (sunflower / s)

In compound nouns formed from two separate nouns, only the first usually takes a normal plural form.

El barco vivienda   -  los barcos vivienda  (houseboat / s)

However, if the second noun can be regarded as qualifying the first, then  both will be pluralized, pais miembro /paises miembros (member country / member countries), documento maestro / documentos maestros (master document / master documents).

4. The plural of foreign nouns in Spanish language

The general trend is to form plurals only by the addition of –s, even if the word ends in a consonant. Some words of French origin at times drop the final – t.

El corner	Los corners	Corner / s (football term)
El barman	Los barmans	Barman / barmen
El cabaret / cabare	Los cabarets/ / cabares	Cabaret / s

There are is also a number of foreign nouns used in Spanish language which end in consonants. In this case they incorporate into Spanish the usual practice of adding – es,

El hotel	Los hoteles	Hotel / s
El gol	Los goles	Goal / goals
El escaner / scanner	Los escaneres / scanners	Scanner / s
El club	Los clubs / clubes	Clubs

Another, case in Spanish nouns are the words derive Latin ending in – t or – um and are found with and without the addition of –s.

El deficit	Los Deficit / s	Deficits
El curriculum	Los Curriculum / s	Curricula
El curriculo	Los Curriculos

       

5. Spanish nouns which are always in plural form

There is also a number of Spanish nouns which are always in plural form, the most common of them are

Las afueras (outskirts)

Los alrededores (surroundings)

Los auriculars  / cascos (headphones)

Los celos (lealously)

Los comestibles (foodstuffs)

Los espaguetis (spaghetti)

Las gafas (spectacles)

Los anteojos (spectacles)

Las Tijeras (Scissors)

Las titieblas (darkness)

Las vacaciones (holidays)

Los viveres (provisions)

6. Spanish nouns used also in plural and singel form  

Spanish nouns used also in the singular and plural include the following – el / los bigote / bigotes “moustache”, el pantaloon / los pantelones “trousers, pants”, la nariz / las narices “nose”, la escalera / las escaleras “stairs”.

You can watch a video about the famous Spanish Speaking tourist destination of Cancun in Mexico.