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Let us look at the endings of some words. Do you remember that there are a few endings
that give us a clue, that tell us that a noun is feminine? Let us go over them.
The ending "ah," with an "a." For example, casa, moneda; these are feminine words. Feminine
does not mean sex it means gender. It means that it will have a way of ending that will
be coherent with the articles and the adjectives. So, our white house in Spanish is la casa
blanca. I have to end everything with an 'a'. La casa blanca. That makes it feminine.
Okay, another type of word that are feminine are the ones ending in 'ion'. For example,
la situacion, la accion. So if I wanted to put an adjective I would have to say la accion
buena, the good action.
Other words that are feminine are the ones that end in 'ad', a-d, ad. For example, la
sociedad, una calimidad. Words ending in 'ad' tend to be the same words as in English ending
in 'et'. For example, sociedad is society. Calimidad is calamity.
Next we have words ending in 'iz.' 'Is' the sound 'is'. For example, la actriz, the actress.
La emperatriz, the emperess.
Now it is your turn. I am going to give you words and you have to figure out whether to
say el or la. That means is it going to be a feminine or a masculine word. How am I going
to say the banana? El banana or la banana? That is right; la banana. Perro. That is right,
el perro. Evolucion? That is right; la evolucion, the evolution. Let us see the next one; motocicleta?
Yes, la motocicleta. Amigo? Yes, el amigo. Libro? Yes, it is el libro. And how about
escuela? It is la escuela. And telefono? It ends in 'o'. That is right, el telefono.