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Marcial Prado's book "Practical Spanish Grammar" offers this mnemonic for determining noun gender: Nouns ending in L-O-N-E-R-S are generally masculine (97%). Examples: un papel, un libro, un tren, un garaje, un color, un lunes Some exceptions: una calle, una clase, una llave, una mano, una muerte, una noche, una suerte, una tarde Nouns ending in D-IÓN-Z-A ...

As Trevor says, there's a general rule that states that nouns: ending in a are feminine ending in o are masculine However, there are exceptions, and as usual with languages, those exceptions often happen in very common words, e.g. "mano" which ends in "o" but is feminine. Then you have words with different endings (in other vowels, in consonants...) ...

There are a few general rules. For example, nouns ending with the letter "a" are generally feminine. But in the long-term the best way to master this is two fold: (1) memorize the article when you learn the definition, and (2) read and listen to the language as much as possible. Eventually the correct article will naturally sound "right."