How to build the plural of Spanish feminine nouns – Episode 39

How to build the plural of Spanish feminine nouns

Podcast episode 39 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today we’ve got part 2 of how to build the plural of nouns.

Hi, welcome back to Speak Spanish with Maria Fernandez. I’m Maria Fernandez, a native Spanish teacher and the author of courses like Learn Spanish At Your Own Pace, which you can find on Amazon.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

In episode 35 we got Julia’s question where she asked for simple rules to build the plural of Spanish nouns. There, we covered masculine nouns.

Today, we’re going to learn and practice building the plural of feminine nouns. As before, we’re going to focus on the two rules that cover the majority of the Spanish feminine nouns.

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Plural of Spanish feminine nouns: two rules

And the good news is: they are the same two rules we learned for masculine nouns.

Rule 1 says: to build the plural of feminine nouns that end in a vowel, add an S to that vowel. Here are two examples: la noche, las noches – la casa, las casas.

Rule 2 says: to build the plural of feminine nouns that end in a consonant, add an ES to that consonant. For instance: la flor, las flores – la ciudad, las ciudades.

Notice that masculine nouns in the plural take the article LOS: los coches, los hoteles. Whereas feminine nouns take the article LAS: las noches, las flores.

Plural of Spanish feminine nouns: vowel + S

Let’s hear 5 other examples of feminine nouns ending in a vowel.

• la mano (the hand) las manos (the hands)
• la madre (the mother) las madres (the mothers)
• la camisa (the shirt) las camisas (the shirts)
• la foto (the photograph) las fotos (the photographs)
• la librería (the bookstore) las librerías (the bookstores)

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Plural of Spanish feminine nouns: consonant + ES

And here are 5 feminine nouns ending in a consonant:

• la ley (the law) las leyes (the laws)
• la red (the web) las redes (the webs)
• la pared (the wall) las paredes (the walls)
• la sal (the salt) las sales (the salts)
• la sociedad (the society) las sociedades (the societies)

Plural of Spanish feminine nouns: speaking drill

Let’s now do a speaking drill. Can you tell me the plural of these 10 nouns?

la camisa, las camisas
la sociedad, las sociedades
la librería, las librerías
la red, las redes
la foto, las fotos
la ley, las leyes
la madre, las madres
la mano, las manos
la sal, las sales
la pared, las paredes

Plural of Spanish feminine nouns: let’s recap

To recap, let’s go through the nouns you’ve heard in this lesson. Repeat after me:

• la noche, las noches
• la casa, las casas
• la flor, las flores
• la ciudad, las ciudades
• la mano, las manos
• la madre, las madres
• la camisa, las camisas
• la foto, las fotos
• la librería, las librerías
• la ley, las leyes
• la red, las redes
• la pared, las paredes
• la sal, las sales
• la sociedad, las sociedades

In future episodes we’ll see how to build the plural of feminine nouns that don’t follow the two rules we’ve seen today.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

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