Gender of Nouns in Spanish. Indefinite Articles

Audio 1:

¿Qué es esto? Esto es

Esto es una mesa [ˈmesa]. Eso es una lámpara [ˈlampara]. Y aquello [aˈkeʝo] es una silla [ˈsiʝa]. Esto es un bolígrafo [boˈligrafo]. Eso es una ventana [benˈtana]. Y aquello es una butaca [buˈtaka]. Esto es un armario [arˈmarjo]. Eso es un piano [ˈpjano]. Y aquello es un teléfono [teˈlefono].

Audio 2:

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Vocablos - Words

* mesa (f.) table; silla (f.) chair — in Spanish, objects have grammatical genders, which doesn't always make logical sense to English speakers because English nouns generally don't have a grammatical gender.

Notes & Explanations

If you can’t read the text above, it means that you missed the previous lesson. How could you do it? It was the pronunciation lesson! You can’t skip lessons here, go back immediately! Or I’ll tell your parents! (just kidding)

This self-study course has two peculiarities:

• The course is very old (originally). It means that sometimes you’ll see some outdated information or words. It came from Poland to Russia with tons of mistakes and misprints, but don’t freak out: first of all, it was thoroughly corrected and updated in 2026; secondly, thousands of people finished this course and they don’t regret it, there must be a good reason for that! (because it’s a good book).
• ‘to Russia,’ you say? Yes, this is a translation/adaptation from Russian. Have you noticed yet? No? It means that the translation is good :)

Pronunciation Rules

The letter Q q [cu] corresponds to the English sound [k].

The letter q in the Spanish language is only used in combination with the letter u, and the vowel u in this combination is not pronounced. Thus, the combinations:

que, qui are read as [ke] [ki].

The letters a, o are read clearly, regardless of stress.

The letter l is pronounced slightly "clearer" or "softer" than the typical dark English [l] (as in 'full'), and the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, so we denote it in the transcription as [l], for example: bolígrafo [boˈligrafo].

The combination ll corresponds to the English sound [j] (like in 'you') and is pronounced as a single sound, for example: silla [ˈsiʎa]. In some regions of Spain, and especially in Latin America, ll is pronounced just like [y], i.e., silla — [siya] [ˈsija] [ˈsiʝa].

Nowadays, ll is very rarely pronounced as a palatal lateral sound [ʎ] (like the 'lli' in 'million'), so it is recommended to pronounce ll as [j] or [y]. Detailed pronunciation rules were covered in the previous lesson.

Stress

All words introduced in this lesson end in a vowel, and therefore have the stress on the penultimate (second to last) syllable.

Exceptions

In the word lámpara [ˈlampara], the stress is marked graphically (acento), so the word lámpara is read with the stress on the antepenultimate (third from the end) syllable. The same applies to teléfono [teˈlefono] and bolígrafo [boˈligrafo].

Expressions

 

¿Qué es esto?

What is this?

In the above sentences, the word es appears, which corresponds to the English is.

You must remember that in Spanish, unlike some other languages, es is never omitted.

Pay attention to the demonstrative pronouns: in Spanish, space is divided into three zones, although in English we often translate them using just two words – "this" or "that":

• esto (this) – the object is near you (within arm's reach).
• eso (that) – the object is not too far (out of reach, but closer to the listener, for example).
• aquello (that / that over there) – the object is far from both of you.

The conjunction y is usually translated as "and"; in contrastive contexts English may also use "but" or simply "and" with a contrastive intonation (Y aquello es... — And that over there is...).

Grammar points

1. Gender of Nouns

Unlike English, nouns in Spanish have two genders: masculine and feminine. Only two, but you need to respect their choice. I mean, you should remember if a noun is masculine or feminine.

Many masculine nouns end in -o, while feminine nouns end in -a.
But keep in mind that it’s not always the case.

2. Indefinite articles (artículos indeterminados)

Like English, Spanish also has articles. Let’s glance only at indefinite articles in this lesson. In Spanish, a functional word called an article (artículo) appears before a noun. The article denotes the gender of the noun, for example:

The article un comes before masculine nouns: un armario — a closet; the article una comes before feminine nouns: una lámpara — a lamp.

The articles un, una are indefinite articles.

Exercises

I. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate indefinite article:

Esto es mesa. Esto es silla. Esto es lámpara. Esto es piano. Esto es ventana. Esto es armario. Esto es bolígrafo. Esto es butaca. Esto es teléfono.

II. Translate into Spanish:

This is a pen. This is a closet. This is a chair. That is a window. This is a piano. This is a table. This is a lamp. That (not far) is an armchair. And that (far) is a phone.