47 Nouns That Break the Main Gender Rule of Spanish (2024)

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Ending offers a good clue to gender, but there are exceptions

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Gerald Erichsen

Spanish Language Expert

B.A., Seattle Pacific University

Gerald Erichsen is a Spanish language expert who has created Spanish lessons for ThoughtCo since 1998.

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Updated on January 30, 2020

Spanishnounsthat end with-oare masculine, and ones that end with-aare feminine, right?

Yes, usually. But there are plenty of exceptions to thisgenderrule, of which the two best known aremano, the word for hand, which is feminine, anddía, the word for day, which is masculine.

Key Takeaways

Most Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine, and most ending in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions.
Some of the exceptions occur because of how the words were treated in other languages, such as Latin and Greek.
Many nouns that refer to jobs or roles of people can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to.

6 Ways in Which the Rule Is Broken

Exceptions to thea-is-feminine-o-is-masculine rule fall into sixcategories:

Words that are shortened versions of other words. For example,la foto(photograph) is feminine because it's short forla fotografía.
Words that end in-istaas the equivalent of the English "-ist." For example,dentistacan be either masculine or feminine depending on whether the dentist referred to is a man or woman. A few words with other endings, such as modelo for a human model, are treated the same way.
Words whose meaningsvary depending on the gender. For example, un cometa is a comet, but una cometa is a kite.
Some masculine words thatcome from Greekand end in-a(often-ma). Most of these words have Englishcognates.
A fewcompound nouns, which are traditionallymasculine, even when the noun portion comes from a feminine noun.
Words that are just exceptions, such asmanoanddía. Usually these exceptions come from the way the words were treated in Latin.

List of Words Violating the Gender Rule

Here are the most common words violating the a/o rule, although there are dozens of others:

el aroma:aroma
el Canadá:Canada
el clima:climate
el cólera:cholera (butla cólera, anger)
el cometa:comet (butla cometa, kite)
el cura:male priest (butla cura, cure or female priest)
el día:day
el diagrama:diagram
el dilema:dilemma
el diploma:diploma
la disco:disco (short forla discoteca)
el drama:drama
el enigma:enigma
el esquema:outline, diagram
la foto:photo (short forla fotografía)
el guardia:policeman or male guard (butla guardia, vigilance, policewoman or female guard)
el guardabrisa:windshield
el guardarropa:clothing closet
el guía:male guide (butla guía, guidebook or female guide)
el idioma:language
el idiota:male idiot (butla idiota, female idiot)
el indígena:indigenous male (butla indígena, indigenous female)
la mano:hand
el mañana:near future (butla mañana, tomorrow or morning)
el mapa:map
la modelo:female model (butel modelo, male model or various types on inanimate models)
el morfema:morpheme
la moto:motorcycle (short forla motocicleta)
la nao:ship
el panorama:panorama, outlook

el papa:pope (butla papa, potato)
el planeta:planet
el plasma:plasma
el poema:poem
el policía:policeman (butla policía, police force or policewoman)
el problema:problem
el programa:program
el quechua:Quechua language
la radio:radio (short forla radiodifusión; butel radio, radius or radium; usage of the feminine form depends on the region)
la reo:female criminal (butel reo, male criminal)
el reuma, el reúma:rheumatism
el síntoma:symptom, sign
el sistema:system
el sofá:sofa
la soprano:female soprano (butel soprano, male soprano)
el tanga:G-string
el telegrama:telegram
el tema:theme, subject
el teorema:theorem
el tequila:tequila (short forel licor de Tequila)
la testigo:female witness (butel testigo, male witness)
el tranvía:streetcar

Gender for Names of Occupations and Other Roles

Most words that refer to people's jobs or roles, many ending in-istaor-eta, that can be either masculine or feminine are not listed above. Most have English cognates. Among the abundance of words that fit that category are:

el/la atleta:athlete
el/la artista:artist
el/la astronauta:astronaut
el/la dentista:dentist
el/la derechista:rightist or right-winger
el/la comentarista:commentator
el/la flebotomista: phlebotomist
el/la izquierdista:leftist or left-winger
el/la oficinista:office worker
el/la poeta:poet
el/la profeta:prophet
el/la turista:tourist

Feminine NounsThat UseEl

Also not included in the top list are combinations such asel agua(water) and el águila (eagle)—feminine words that begin with a stresseda-orha-and are immediately preceded byel(rather than la) in the singular form only.

With these words,eldoesn't indicate gender but is used instead for ease of pronunciation. It is similar to the way in which English substitutes "an" for "a" in front of some nouns, as the rule applies to the opening sound of the word, not how it's spelled.

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Erichsen, Gerald. "Spanish Words That Break the Gender Rule." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/words-that-break-the-gender-rule-3078133.Erichsen, Gerald. (2023, April 5). Spanish Words That Break the Gender Rule. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/words-that-break-the-gender-rule-3078133Erichsen, Gerald. "Spanish Words That Break the Gender Rule." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/words-that-break-the-gender-rule-3078133 (accessed March 6, 2024).