Most nouns ending in “a” are feminine, as
violeta.
Nouns ending in
umbre, as
muchedumbre, “crowd,” and
incertidumbre, ”uncertainty”; and those ending in
ión, as
television and
ocupación are also feminine.
Most nouns ending in “o” are masculine. For example:
escritorio, "desk,"
carro, "car," and
banco.
Occupations ending in "ista" are neutral. In such cases gender is determined by the articles
el, la, “the”;
un, una, “a, an.” For example:
el taxista, la economista, una pianista, un periodista, “journalist,”
el dentista, la accionista, “shareholder,”
el contrabandista, “smuggler,” and
la columinista.
Most adjectives ending in “e” are also neutral. For example:
estudiante and
cantante, "singer."
Sexist PluralMany consider Spanish a sexist language, especially when the plural is concerned, as masculine forms predominate. A student pointed out that she attended a lecture on the contributions women made to linguistics. 90 percent of the participants were women, yet, she recalled angrily, when referring to the group, she had to use the masculine form los participantes.
No more. The language liberation has begun. Freedom fighters neutralized
hombre, “man,” as representative of human beings. Sexist expressions such as
Los derechos del hombre, “The Rights of Man,” and
La historia del hombre, “History of Mankind,” have been transformed to
Los derechos humanos and
La historia de la humanidad. The masculine plural no longer would comprise men and women. When referring to the citizens of Rome,
las romanas must accompany
los romanos. U.S. Latinos should translate to
las latinas y los latinos de los Estados Unidos. For children of the world we must include
las niñas to
los niños del mundo or use
la niñez.My student also requested that I stop calling her
señorita Smith, “Miss,” since I didn’t address male students as
señoritos, “unmarried gentleman.”
I checked with the Spanish Ministry of Social Affairs, the Women’s Institute, and, indeed, from now on
señoras should encompass both married and unmarried women as
señor, “mister,” does men.
Professional titles, traditionally used in the masculine form, have been feminized, as in
doctora, alcaldeza, “mayor,”
presidenta and
embajadora.
And occupations traditionally relegated to women as
enfermeras, “nurses,”
secretarias and
prostitutas, when expressed in a general sense, should include masculine forms, as in
las enfermeras and
los efermeros;
doctores and
doctoras; los
ejecutivos and
las ejecutivas.
I read an article recently about
secretarios and
secertarias no longer taking dictation, and another article about how the economic downturn in some countries has more
prostitutos and
prostitutas walking the streets.
onth; Junius, “June,” junio, the fourth month, Juno’s month; Quintilis or Julius, “July,” julio, the fifth month, Julius Caesar’s month; Sextilis, “ August,” agosto, the sixth month, Augustus Caesar’s month; September, “September,” septiembre, the seventh month; October, “October,” octubre, the eighth month; November, November, noviembre, the ninth month; December, “December”, diciembre, the tenth month.
