Spanish nouns - Unlike English, Spanish nouns have gender and are either masculine or feminine. Spanish nouns ending in -o tend to be masculine and those ending in -a tend to be feminine. Spanish nouns ending in -sión,-ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine.
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We are referring to words representing a person, place, thing or idea. The big difference between English and Spanish nouns is that, Spanish nouns have gender. Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine, plus they have articles that must agree in both gender and number. Such as: un, una, el, las, etc. English has only 3 articles: "a" , "an" and "the".
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una hamburguesa
Masculine Feminine
el libro.....the book la mesa.....the table
el vestido.....the dress la pluma.....the pen
un piano.....a piano una casa.....a house
un diccionario.....a dictionary una planta..... a plant
Notice that "el" and "la" both mean "the", but "el" is masculine and "la" is feminine. While "un" is masculine and "una" is feminine for the word "a". Also notice that those Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine and those ending in -a are feminine. However, this is not always the case. You will have to memorize the exceptions to this rule. But, don't worry, gender mistakes are common and you can still be understood. With practice, as you become more familiar with the language the correct article will naturally come to you.
With people and animals the idea of gender makes more sense; because living things often have different names according to their gender. Examples in English are: man and women, tiger and tigress, stallion and filly....
un nieto / a grandson
Examples:
el gato.....the male cat / la gata.....the female cat
el perro..... the male dog / la perra.....the female dog
un niño..... a male child / una niña..... a female child
un tío..... an uncle / una tía..... an aunt
el señor.... the man or Mr. / la señora.... the lady or Mrs.
el pianista............... la pianista / the pianist
el artista.................. la artista / the artist
Spanish nouns ending in -sión,-ción, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre are feminine.
la televisión, la habitación, la ciudad, la dificultad, la gratitud ....
Most Spanish nouns ending in -ma are masculine.
el problema, el poema, el systema
(la cama and la pluma are exceptions)
Exceptions to the rules and you must memorize 
them.
el sofa, el planeta, el día, el mapa /masculine: ending in -a
la mano, la radio /feminine: ending in -o
el sofa
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