Mismatching word gender in Spanish?

Question

My native language is a genderless language, there is no masculine/feminine words, and so there is no being agreeable in grammar. This causes a lot of confusion for me as a Spanish Learner and no matter how much I try to be agreeable sometimes make mistake in *a/o* or *el/la* or... Spanish teachers tend to say: "You will not be understood if you are not agreeable!".My question is: How does a native Spanish speaker feel if I mistake word genders? Is it considered a mistake? Is it offensive? Will it totally lose meaning?

Answer 1

As a former Spanish Teacher and traveler I can tell you that most people will not be offended by a Spanish learner's linguistic errors. Languages such as English for example, do not have gender built into the language, so it is often difficult for native English speakers learning Spanish to remember correct gender agreement of nouns and adjectives as well as matching them in number! I think what matters is effort and practice, so keep trying and you will be fine!

Answer 2

Spanish native speaker can't be offended at all. Just because you are just learning and that process you have to allowed yourself to make mistakes.

As a matter of fact an Spanish native speaker should be honored you want to learn his/her language.

On the other hand, you will get familiar with the use of gender with a frequent practice of Spanish, reading books in Spanish and even watch a movie in Spanish.

And you will get it right!

Answer 3

As a native Spanish speaker and Spanish teacher, I would personally and professionally disagree with the statement " you will not be understood if you are not agreeable". People will still understand what you are saying, they might ask you questions to clarify. It is a grammatical mistake and it is an error, however, people won't get offended by that mistake, they will quickly realize Spanish is your second language and they might correct you.

As a Spanish teacher I work with students whose main language is English, so I can say that this is one of the most challenging aspects of Spanish for English speakers. I always tell my students, your brain isn't use to think about gender agreement, so it is going to take some time to train your brain to do that, and it will take a lot of work and effort to recognize those patterns you aren't use to.