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of some, a few, when the noun has no attribute, but this makes a weaker construction than unos cuantos or algunos:

Un caballero con unos libros.

Vi á algunos ingleses.

A gentleman with (some) books.

I saw some Englishmen.

THE DETERMINATIVE LO

11. The quasi-neuter article, lo, the, is used with adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns to express substantive ideas:

Lo bueno, the good, that which Lo mejor, the best, that which is

is good.

Lo mío, mine, that which is mine.
Haré lo posible para efectuarlo.

Dicho lo cual se retiró.

best.

Lo suyo, his, that which is his.
I shall do my best to accomplish
it.

Which being said, he withdrew.

12. Lo is also used as a pronoun, but this will be discussed later. (See Pronouns.)

THE NOUN

GENDER

13. There are two genders: masculine and feminine; and all substantives, even those which designate inanimate objects, substances, and abstract ideas, are of one of these genders.

14. In general, those Spanish common nouns which end in o are masculine, and those which end in a are feminine.

15. The gender of a word is to be determined either by its meaning or by its ending.

16. Those nouns which by their meaning are masculine may be thus classified:

a. All nouns, of whatever ending, denoting males, or designating the titles, professions, or pursuits which are commonly associated with males:

El rey, the king.

El cura, the curate (priest).

El sastre, the tailor.
El buey, the ox.

b. The gender of the names of countries, cities, provinces, and towns ending in o, a, follows the general rule given above (Seotion 14); that is, those terminating in o being masculine, those in a feminine; if, however, they end in a consonant, they are mostly masculine :

El Carpio, Lugo, Madrid, Burgos, Brasil; la Andalucía, Valencia.

c. Masculines in o may be poetically used in the feminine, when la ciudad, the city, is understood:

La ilustre Toledo.

Illustrious Toledo ;

except in such cases as those where the article is inseparable from

the noun:

Bernardo del Carpio.

Bernard of the Carpio.

d. The names of most rivers, no matter what may be the ending. e. Those parts of speech which are invariable, when used substantively:

El sí, the consent (yes).

El pagaré, the promissory note.

El pro y el contra, the pro and the con.

f. The names of most fruit trees and their wood, the fruit usu

ally being feminine:

El manzano, the apple-tree.
El naranjo, the orange-tree.

The following are exceptions:

La palmera, the palm-tree.
La higuera, the fig-tree.

El limonero, the lemon-tree.
El membrillero, the quince-tree.
El albaricoquero, the apricot-tree.

La manzana, the apple.
Una naranja, an orange.

Un dátil, a date.
Un higo, a fig.

Una breva, a fresh fig.
Un limón, a lemon.
El membrillo, the quince.

El albaricoque, the apricot.

El fruto is the fruit on the tree, or in a figurative sense; la fruta is the fruit after it is gathered, as when it is exposed for sale, or is brought on the table; but la rama, the bough, branch, is used of the branch or bough before it is removed from the tree; while el ramo denotes the branch after removal, or in a figurative

sense.

17. The following classes of nouns are feminine by their meaning: a. Those, of whatever ending, which denote females, or designate dignities, titles, offices, professions, and pursuits associated with

women:

La reina, the queen.

La emperatriz, the empress.

La costurera, the seamstress.
La doncella, the maid, lady's
maid.

With the exception of dueño, master or mistress, and ángel, angel, applicable to either sex; though in some senses the feminine

dueña, mistress, is employed, as when a woman says, Soy dueña de mí misma, I am mistress of myself.

b. All the letters of the alphabet.

18. Masculines by ending are:

a. All common nouns that end in o, no matter what their signification may be:

El peso, the weight.

El reino, the kingdom.

Except la mano, the hand, and la reo, the (female) culprit.

b. Certain nouns, ending in a, designating males:

El carlista, the Carlist.

El periodista, the publisher of a periodical.

c. Also foreign words ending in an accented á:

El sofá, the sofa.

El maná, the manna.

d. Certain nouns in a and ema from Greek and Latin neuters, or such as follow their analogy:

El clima, the climate.

El idioma, the language.

El problema, the problem.

El sistema, the system.

El tema means the text, theme; la tema, the contention, the dispute.

19. Nouns are feminine by their termination :

a. Which end in a, excluding those already explained to be masculine.

b. Which end in dad, tad, ión, ie, tud, and umbre:

La verdad, the truth.

La libertad, liberty.

La atención, attention.

La especie, the kind, species.

La virtud, virtue.

La lumbre, the fire.

20. There are, in addition, many nouns which do not uniformly show the gender. These must be learned by association with the article which corresponds with them, and which serves to indicate their gender:

El árbol, the tree.

La cárcel, the jail.

21. Masculine nouns ending in a may assume the feminine article when applied to females:

Un belga, a Belgian, becomes una belga; un artista, an artist, becomes una artista.

22. A few feminines in a now generally take the masculine article when they denote males:

La guía, the guide, becomes el guía.

23. Several nouns designating persons, and not ending in a, have a common form for both genders:

El or la hereje, the heretic.

El or la joven, the youth, young

man, or woman.

24. Many nouns which were feminine in Old Spanish, and are still considered as such in a poetic or elevated style, or in certain traditional phrases, are now masculine in ordinary prose:

El mar, the sea.

Alta mar, high sea.

25. Margen, margin, is masculine or feminine without change of meaning.

26. Arte, art, is always feminine in the plural, and predominantly so in the singular, though it is often masculine in the singular:

Las bellas artes, the fine arts.

El arte dramático, the dramatic art.

27. The following nouns, denoting inanimate objects, have a different meaning with a difference of gender :

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Una canal, a canal, an artificial La canal, the natural water-way,

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El frente, the front rank, (mili- La frente, the forehead. tary), the face of a bastion.

El parte, the telegraphic dis- La parte, the part, portion.
patch.

El pendiente, a pendant, earring.
Un pez, (generic), a fish.

Una pendiente, a slope, declivity.
La pez, the tar, the pitch.

28. Compound nouns usually take the gender of the second member when that is singular, but if it is plural the whole word is masculine, be the second term what it may :

El ferrocarril, the railroad.
La guardarropa, the wardrobe.

El cortaplumas, the pen-knife.
El portamonedas, the porte-mon-
naie.

Tranvía, tramway, is masculine.

FORMATION OF THE FEMININE OF NOUNS DESIGNATING PERSONS

29. Those nouns which are capable of variation to express gender are changed from the masculine to the feminine:

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b. By adding a to the masculine finals d, 1, n, r, s, and z:

El huésped, the guest, the boarder.

El español, the Spaniard.
El alemán, the German.
El señor, the lord, gentleman.
El inglés, the Englishman.
El andaluz, the Andalucian.

La huéspeda, the female guest,
boarder.

La española, the Spanish woman.
La alemana, the German woman.
La señora, the lady, mistress.
La inglesa, the Englishwoman.
La andaluza, the Andalucian

woman.

c. A few nouns in dor and tor substitute triz:

El actor, the actor.

La actriz, the actress.

d. A few nouns suffix sa or esa to the masculine:

El conde, the count.

El barón, the baron.

La condesa, the countess.

La baronesa, the baroness.

e. The following change the final vowel to isa:

El poeta, the poet.

El profeta, the prophet.

El sacerdote, the priest.

La poetisa, the poetess.

La profetisa, the prophetess.
La sacerdotisa, the priestess.

f. A few nouns in modern Spanish change final e to a: El sastre, the tailor.

La sastra, the tailoress.

Except, however, el héroe, the hero, la heroina, the heroine.

g. There is a growing tendency to change final e to a in the case of many nouns which terminate in ante, ente, iente (yente), though many writers and speakers continue to use the final e for both genders:

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