Please allow
me to provide you with my Spanish-speaking background.
I grew up listening to my father who used to converse with our Spanish
neighbours in Kamuning, Quezon City despite his limited Spanish proficiency.
My first opportunity to formally learn Spanish was during my last
two years of high school and then to the UP for four more years.
While living in
the USA and other places abroad, I have had contacts with Spanish
speaking people, starting from Occidental College as an MA student
in 1964-66. In 1967, I spent the whole Summer working as
an English teacher to Puerto Rican migrant tobacco farm workers in
Massachussets.
In 1968, I spent the whole Summer (Winter there) in Santiago de Chile
living with a non-English speaking family, and in 1972, I was a Spanish
teacher at Edina High School in Minnesota. Since then, with the continued
influx of Spanish-speaking people from Latin America to Minneapolis
and St. Paul, I found myself conversing with them daily including
at my place of work.
PRIMERA LECCION: GENDER DIFFERENTIATION
In Spanish as a general rule words/nouns ending in:
1. O are masculine and A, feminine.
2. L and R are masculine.
3. ION are feminine.
4. ON and GRAMA are masculine
5. D, S (singular noun only) and Z are feminine.
6. U and E are usually masculine.
The plural for masculine gender is LOS; for feminine, LAS.
(1) O and A endings. EL MEDICO, EL CARPINTERO; LA VIDA, LA MAESTRA,
LA COCINERA.
But as they say in Spanish, EN CADA REGLA, HAY SIEMPRE UNA EXCEPCION
(In every rule, there is always an exception).
The word MANO which ends in O is feminine --la mano, las manos. But
when we speak of MANO diminutively, it becomes LA MANITA or LAS MANITAS.
Remember MANITAS DE PLATA (hands of silver), the famous
Spanish Gypsy Flamenco guitarist and Roberto Duran, the famous Panamanian
pugilist or boxer? He was called MANITAS DE PIEDRA or hands of stone.
Conversely the words ALMA, CURA (Friar), and PAPA (Pope, father),
which end in A, are masculine. Hence EL ALMA, EL CURA, EL PAPA. For
those ending in gramA, see item 4.
But there are
words in Spanish which end in A but can be both masculine and feminine.
The best example is the word TURISTA. A male tourist is called UN
or EL TURISTA; the female tourist, UNA or LA TURISTA.
The word MEDICO (an MD) is always masculine. So we say ELLA ES UN
MEDICO (She is an MD). However, Latin American speakers have feminised
the word medico when referring to a female MD. Consequently, ELLA
ES UNA MEDICA. I frown on this; but language is dynamic and its acceptance
is inevitable, if not already a fait accompli.
(2) Nouns ending in L and R are also masculine. Hence, El CABAL, EL
CANAL, etc. For R, they are EL PORVENIR or the future (Remember the
famous ELPO shoes. The name was short for El Porvenir Shoe Company),
EL AMOR, EL ARDOR, EL CLAMOR, EL SUDOR (the sweat, the toil, the drudgery),
etc. The same is true with EL MARTIR (the martyr). One exception is
the word MUJER which by definition is feminine.
But in the case of the word MAR (sea), it can become feminine also.
Normally MAR is masculine such as EL MAR. But poetically speaking
it can be feminised. Hear this haunting and beautiful Chilean Song:
LA MAR ESTABA SERENA, SERENA ESTABA LA MAR. The sea was calm, and
calm was the sea.
(3) Nouns ending in ION are as a rule female. La INVENCION, LA ORGANIZACION,
etc.
(4) However, nouns ending in ON and GRAMA are masculine. Ergo: El
MESON (the inn, hostelry), EL TIMON (the rudder), EL CORAZON (the
heart), EL MELON as in that famous Latin American song popularised
by El Trio los Panchos, entitled CORAZON DE MELON. Then The words
PROGRAMA, CABLEGRAMA, CRUCIGRAMA (cross-word puzzle),TELEGRAMA, are
always masculine. Ergo EL PROGRAMA, etc.
(5) Words ending in D, S (singular noun only) and Z are feminine.
Check these out: LA PARED (the wall), LA NAVIDAD (the Christmas),
LA ENFERMEDAD (the ailment); EL MES (the month); and then LA LUZ.
The
exception here is the word JUEZ which is masculine and it is so by
traditional bias.
(6) Last, but not least, nouns or words ending in U and E are masculine.
El BU (the bogy, bugbear). Then EL ACEITE (the oil), EL FUNEBRE (the
funeral), EL HOMBRE, EL POBRE, etc.
However the word POBRE if used diminutively and as an adjective can
be both masculine and feminine (Refer to LA MANO and LA MANITA). Hear
these: POBRECITA MIA -- ang sawing-palad kong mahal or in the famous
song of Pilita Corales, Pobreng Kasintahan, and POBRECITO CORAZON
--my poor heart.
(Next will be the verb to be: ser and estar)
Below are two pictures taken in Chile, South America in August,1968.
One with my parents and relatives were from Santiago, the capital;
the other from Valparaiso, a beautiful Pacific Ocean city.
