What are some weird exceptions to the masculinity and femininity rules?

Answer 1

Gender rules can be tricky to sort out. As was mentioned already, Greek borrowings tend to be masculine. If a word ends in -ma, -pa, or -ta, and the word sounds scientific or nearly identical to English, you can safely assume it is masculine. For example, programa (i.e. program), mapa (i.e. map), and planeta (i.e. planet) are all fairly technical words and all nearly identical to English. Cama, on the other hand, is neither technical nor at all similar to the English word "bed," so it follows the standard rule of words ending in a being feminine.

Another tricky concept is feminine words that use "el" instead of "la." This happens whenever you have a feminine word that begins with an accented "a" sound. For example, "the cold water" is "el agua fría."

The important thing is that the first sound is an accented "a" - so you also get "el haba deliciosa" (the delicious fava bean). Since the first syllable must be accented for this rule to apply, you still get the standard "la" in words like "la arena calurosa" (the hot sand) and "la harina blanca" (the white flour).

Because of this rule, it can be hard to tell sometimes if a word that starts with an accented "a" sound is masculine or feminine unless you have an adjective to give you a clue. This has led to an odd conundrum with the word arte. In the singular, it is generally accepted to be masculine: el arte moderno (Modern art). However, in the plural, artes is generally accepted to be feminine: las artes (the arts).

Answer 2

An interesting one is the word "mar" (means sea). It is masculine so you say "el mar", but in poetry it is wildly accepted to refer it as a feminine "la mar".

Answer 3

During the first few days of Spanish class, most of us are taught a few basic rules to determine the gender of a noun. For example, nouns ending in "a" tend to be feminine, while nouns ending in "o" tend to be masculine. However, there are a few exceptions that tend to trip my students up.

The most common error I hear is "la problema." As a general rule, nouns ending in "ma" that are of Greek origin tend to be masculine. Of course, you may have a hard time determining the origin of words without looking them up, so I generally assume that all "ma" nouns are masculine unless told otherwise. Thus, you should say "el problema" and not "la problema." Similarly, you should say "el sistema" and not "la sistema."

Another common error I have noticed involves Spanish words starting with the letter "a." For example, agua and aula (classroom) both start with the letter "a." Although agua is actually a feminine word, saying "la agua" sounds incredibly weird. For this reason, you should say "el agua" and "el aula," even though agua and aula are actually feminine nouns. To make matters worse, since agua is feminine, make sure you use feminine adjectives to describe it. So, you should say "el agua clara" and not "el agua claro."

These are just two of the most common errors I have noticed while tutoring. Of course, there are a ton of other interesting masculinity and femininity rules I'd love to share! If you are interested, please contact me!