A noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing, idea, or quality. All Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine and the gender of most of them can be determined by their meaning or ending. 

Most masculine nouns end in -o, while most feminine nouns end in -a. A few nouns must be learned on an individual basis.

Gender-Obvious Nouns
Nouns that refer to males are obviously masculine. Refer to this list for common nouns you’ll see: 










Nouns that refer to females are obviously feminine. Refer to the table below for the female counterparts of the males listed above:

NOUN	MEANING
abuela	grandmother
chica	girl
hija	doughter
madre	mother
muchacha	girl
mujer	woman
sobrina	niece
tía	aunt

Some nouns can be either masculine or feminine depending upon whom you are speaking about. Make sure to use the gender marker that identifies the person correctly. The following list of words may be used to refer to both males and females.

NOUN	MEANING
artista	artist
dentista	dentist
estudiante	student
joven	youth
turista	tourist

El artista es talentoso  | The artist (male) is gifted
La artista es talentosa         | The artist (female) is gifted

Some high-frequency words are always masculine or feminine despite the gender of the person referred to:

NOUNS	MEANING
un bebé	an infant
una persona	a person
una víctima	a victim

Gender-Changing Singular
Nouns Changing the gender of a noun can be as easy as removing the o ending for the masculine form and substituting an a to get the feminine form as shown here:

MASCULINE	FEMININE	MEANING
amigo	amiga	friend
maestro	maestra	teacher
nieto	nieta	grandchild
niño	niña	child
primo	prima	cousin
vecino	vecina	neighbor

Some nouns may be masculine or feminine depending upon their meaning as shown below:

MASCULINE	FEMININE
el capital (money)	la capital (capital)
el cura (priest)	la cura (cure)
el guía (male guide)	la guía (guidebook)
el policía (policeman)	la policía (police force - woman)

Gender endings
Some nouns that end in -o are feminine:

NOUN	MEANING
la mano	hand
la radio	radio

Some nouns that end in -a are masculine:

NOUN	MEANING
el clima	climate
el día	day
el drama	drama
el idioma	language
el mapa	map
el planeta	planet
el problema	problem
el programa	program
el tema	theme
el telegrama	telegram

Some noun endings are normally feminine:
-dad: la ciudad, city
-tad: la dificultad, difficulty
-tud: la juventud, youth
-umbre: la costumbre, custom
-ie: la serie, series -ión: la canción, song
Two exceptions to -ión are avión (ah-bee-yohn) airplane, and camión (kah-mee-yohn) truck.
For masculine nouns referring to people and ending in -or, -és, or -n, add an a for the feminine equivalents:

MASCULINE	FEMININE	MEANING
el profesor	la profesora	teacher
el francés	la francesa	french people
el alemán	la alemana	german people

Note that if the masculine noun is accented on the last syllable, the accent is dropped for the feminine form. Two exceptions to this rule are:
el emperador (emperor), la emperatriz (empress)
el actor (actor), la actriz (actress)

Making Nouns Plural
Just as in English, when a Spanish noun refers to more than one person, place, thing, idea, or quality, the noun must be made plural. Unlike English, however, it is not enough to simply change the noun; the marker must be made plural as well. Spanish nouns ending in a vowel add a pronounced -s to form the plural:

el muchacho (the boy),  los muchachos (the boys) 
una amiga (a friend), unas amigas (some friends)
este hombre (this man), estos hombres (these men)
esa niña (that girl), esas niñas (those girls)
aquel libro (that book), aquellos libros (those books)

Spanish nouns ending in a consonant (including y) add pronounced -es (ehs) to form the plural:

el papel (paper), los papeles
el mes (month), los meses
el actor (actor), los actores
la ley (law) las leyes
Spanish nouns undergo the following changes in the plural:

• Nouns ending in -z change -z to -ce before adding -es:
el lápiz (pencil) los lápices
la actriz (actress) las actrices
el pez (fish) los peces lohs peh-sehs
• In order to preserve the original stress of the noun, you may need to add or delete an accent mark:
el joven (youth) los jóvenes
el examen (test) los exámenes
el francés (Frenchman) los franceses
la canción (song) las canciones 
• Nouns ending in -s, except for those ending in és, do not change in the plural:
el (los) jueves ehl (lohs) hoo-weh-behs Thursday(s) la (las) dosis lah (lahs) doh-sees dose(s)
• In cases where there is a group of nouns from both genders, the masculine plural form of the noun is used:
el padre y la madre = los padres (the parents)
el niño y la niña = los niños (the children)
el señor y la señora Ruiz = los señores Ruiz (the Ruizes)

Some nouns in Spanish are always plural:

ENGLISH	SPANISH
eyeglasses	las gafas
mathematics	las matemáticas
vacations	las vacaciones

Some nouns are singular but refer to a group of people. Make sure to use a singular verb that agrees with these subjects:

SPANISH	ENGLISH
el equipo	team
la familia	family
la gente	people
el grupo	group
la pareja	couple
el público	audience
todo el mundo	everybody

A note about regionalisms:
Do not be surprised when traveling in certain regions or countries that the final -s of a plural word is not pronounced. You can still tell that the noun is plural by paying careful attention to the marker that accompanies it. This marker will also tell you whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

External Resources:
If you need more information about Spanish grammar go to Related Resources located on the left side of the page or go to See more about Nouns in Wikipedia