More on Noun Gender in Spanish

In the last post, we were introduced to Lawrence and Dazcion - mnemonics that will help us remember the gender of various Spanish nouns. However, there are some exceptions to these rules. Many of the words that don't follow the rules are words that are 'borrowed' from other languages, like English. Observe the table below:

Masculine Nouns Not Ending in L-O-R-E-N-S
Arroz [ar-roz] ‘rice’
Bistec [bees-tek] ‘steak’
Champu [cham-poo] ‘shampoo’
Dia [di-yah] ‘day’
Esqui [es-ki] ‘ski’
Fax [faks] ‘fax’
Mapa [mah-pah] ‘map’
Menú [meh-noo] ‘menu’
Pez [pehz] ‘fish’
Programma [pro-gra-ma] ‘programme’
Reloj [re-loh] ‘watch’
Rey [reh-ee] ‘king’

Feminine Nouns Not Ending in Dazcion
Calle [ka-ye] ‘street’
Cancer [kahn-sehr] ‘cancer’
Carcel [kar-sehl] ‘prison’
Carne [kar-neh] ‘meat’
Flor [flor] ‘flower’
Ley [leh-ee] ‘law’
Lente [len-teh] ‘lens’
Mujer [mu-her] ‘wife’
Noche [noh-cheh] ‘night’
Razón [rah-zon] ‘reason’
Suerte [swer-teh] ‘luck’


You should also note that just because a word is generally associated to a certain gender (i.e., pants for men, skirts for women) doesn't meant that the gender of the word will follow. Look how ironic Spanish nouns can be:

Masculine Nouns
Camison [ka-mi-son] ‘nightdress’
Pantys [pahn-tees] ‘thights’
Salvaslips [sal-vahs-leeps] ‘panty liner’
Sujetador [su-heh-tah-dor] ‘bra’
Pendiante [pen-dyan-teh] ‘earrings’
Feminine Nouns
Corbata [kor-bah-tah] ’tie’
Gorra [gohr-rah] ‘cap’
Guardia [gwar-dya] ‘guard’

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ludicrous, even derogatory? (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)