In some languages, nouns have genders. That doesn’t mean that the nouns necessarily have anything to do with men or women. Of course, if a noun refers to a man or a woman, it usually is masculine or feminine.
Masucline
| El hombre habla espa±ol. | The man speaks Spanish. |
El hombre is a masculine noun. You can tell it’s masculine by the article that comes in front of it, el. Here’s another example:
| El bolφgrafo es azul. | The pen is blue. |
El bolφgrafo is a masculine noun too. This is a good example of a "thing" being labeled as "masculine," even though it has nothing to do with men.
Feminine
| La mujer habla francΘs. | The woman speaks Spanish. |
La mujer is feminine. Feminine nouns have a different article in Spanish, la:
| La flor es roja. | The flower is red. |
Even though the noun la flor, the flower, has no feminine qualities, it is still a feminine noun.
Here are some more examples of gender:
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
| el libro | the book | la silla | the chair |
| el gato | the cat | la puerta | the door |
You’ll always be told what gender a noun has the first time you see it in the program, because it’s really best to learn nouns with their articles as you go along.