LinguaOne letter makes many
Spanish plurals are regular. A word that ends in a vowel adds -s: casa → casas, amigo → amigos. A word that ends in a consonant adds -es: hotel → hoteles, ciudad → ciudades. That is the whole rule for almost every noun you will meet this year.
| Ends in | Add | Singular → plural |
|---|---|---|
| a vowel | -s | casa → casas, mesa → mesas |
| a consonant | -es | hotel → hoteles, ciudad → ciudades |
| -z | -ces | lápiz → lápices, vez → veces |
| -s (stress not on the end) | nothing | el lunes → los lunes, la crisis → las crisis |
The articles go plural too
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| masculine, definite | el libro | los libros |
| feminine, definite | la mesa | las mesas |
| masculine, indefinite | un amigo | unos amigos |
| feminine, indefinite | una casa | unas casas |
Unos and unas mean some or a few: unos amigos, unas casas. A mixed group of men and women takes the masculine plural: dos amigos y tres amigas together are cinco amigos.
When the tilde moves
Adding a syllable can change whether a word needs its accent mark. Canción loses it in canciones (the stress is now in the default place), and joven gains one in jóvenes (the stress stays on jo-, which is no longer the default). The spoken stress never moves; only the mark does.
Los estudiantes son jóvenes.The students are young.
Tengo dos lápices y unas hojas.I have two pencils and some sheets of paper.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| los | the (masculine plural) | Los libros están aquí. The books are here. |
| las | the (feminine plural) | Las casas son blancas. The houses are white. |
| unos | some, a few (masculine) | Unos chicos hablan en la calle. Some boys are talking in the street. |
| unas | some, a few (feminine) | Compro unas manzanas. I am buying some apples. |
| el lápiz | pencil | Necesito un lápiz. I need a pencil. |
| joven | young | Mi profesora es joven. My teacher is young. |
| la ciudad | city | Madrid es una ciudad grande. Madrid is a big city. |
| la cosa | thing | Es una cosa importante. It is an important thing. |
| la persona | person | Ana es una persona simpática. Ana is a nice person. |
| el estudiante | student (male) | Pablo es estudiante de español. Pablo is a student of Spanish. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 1
- translate the sentence: 2
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
What is the plural of hotel?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.