A Simplified Approach for Teaching the Gender of Spanish Nouns

Abstract

O NE of the most challenging problems for students of Spanish who are native speakers of English is that of learning the of Spanish nouns (e.g., papel as masculine, nieve as feminine, testigo as ambivalent, etc.). This identification is, of course, grammatically important since it is the basis for the agreement of gendervariable adjectives and gender-variable determiners with nouns (el papel blanco, la blanca nieve, un testigo fidedigno, una testigo fidedigna). In fact, Stockwell et al.1 claim that, since the occurrence of is obligatory in all Spanish nouns but nonexistent in English nouns, it exemplifies the most difficult type of problem for a second-language learner. Accordingly, in their Hierarchy of Difficulty Stockwell et al., p. 285, list gender as the fifth most difficult feature of Spanish grammar for English-speaking students to master.