How to build the plural of Spanish masculine nouns – Episode 35

How to build the plural of Spanish masculine nouns

Podcast episode 35 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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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.

Today we’ve got a great question about how to build the plural.

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

Today’s question comes from Julia, one of my students. Julia asked last week whether there are some simple rules to build the plural of Spanish nouns.

So, in this lesson we’re going to focus on how to build the plural of masculine nouns. In particular, we’re going to focus on the two rules that cover the majority of the Spanish masculine nouns.

Plural of Spanish masculine nouns: two rules

There are some masculine nouns that don’t follow those rules. We’ll see them in future lessons. Today, these are the two rules you’re going to learn:

Rule number 1 says: to build the plural of masculine nouns that end in a vowel, simply add an S. Here are two examples: el coche, los coches – el sistema, los sistemas.

Rule number 2 says: to build the plural of masculine nouns that end in a consonant, add an ES. For instance: el hotel, los hoteles – el profesor, los profesores.

Notice that masculine nouns in the singular take the article EL: el coche (the car), el hotel (the hotel).

Whereas, in the plural, they take the article LOS: los coches (the cars), los hoteles (the hotels).

Plural of Spanish masculine nouns: vowel + S

Here are 5 other examples of masculine nouns that end in a vowel.

el supermercado – the supermarket – los supermercados – the supermarkets
el abuelo – the grandfather – los abuelos – the grandfathers
el problema – the problem – los problemas – the problems
el perro – the dog – los perros – the dogs
el café – the coffee – los cafés – the coffees

Plural of Spanish masculine nouns: consonant + ES

And here are 5 masculine nouns that end in a consonant:

el papel, the paper, los papeles, the papers
el doctor, the doctor, los doctores, the doctors
el árbol, the tree, los árboles, the trees
el general, the general, los generales, the generals
el rey, the king, los reyes, the kings

Plural of Spanish masculine nouns: speaking drill

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

el café, los cafés
el papel, los papeles
el perro, los perros
el rey, los reyes
el problema, los problemas
el hotel, los hoteles
el supermercado, los supermercados
el doctor, los doctores
el árbol, los árboles
el sistema, los sistemas

Plural of Spanish masculine nouns: let’s recap

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

el coche, los coches
el sistema, los sistemas
el hotel, los hoteles
el profesor, los profesores
el supermercado, los supermercados
el abuelo, los abuelos
el problema, los problemas
el perro, los perros
el café, los cafés
el papel, los papeles
el doctor, los doctores
el árbol, los árboles
el general, los generales
el rey, los reyes

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