8

I was going through a discussion thread over at duolingo ("How to use El and La in Spanish"), when I came upon the following question:

Anyone know the percentage of Spanish nouns ending in -a that are not feminine? 5%? 10%? Or is it just 1%?

It made me wonder if someone might have answered this question here at Spanish StackExchange, but after going through several pages, the closest answer I found (punctuation edited) appeared as follows

... 95% of the cases, female gender ends with an -a ...

in the following thread ("Beyond memorisation and time, how can you master Grammatical Gender in Spanish? [closed].")

From this, I could surmise that 5% of nouns ending in -a are masculine. However, since the user who wrote that doesn't cite any source, I have to wonder if that is just a rough guess. Is there anything more scientific that someone could provide on the percentage of nouns ending in -a that are masculine and the percentage ending in -o that are feminine?

Also, while I'm on the subject, does anyone know what percentage of Spanish nouns are feminine and what percentage are masculine (regardless of ending)?

5
  • 1
    Following the links on the duolingo thread I saw that Words That Break the Gender 'Rule' lists about 49 exceptions to the rule and many of those are very common nouns and I don't think this is a comprehensive list. So my advice is do not trust those unofficial rules. It is not that people won't understand the meaning of a sentence if you mix a few noun genders. With time and practice you will get them right.
    – DGaleano
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 18:48
  • 2
    In order to give you a percentage, we would first have to determine what constitutes a masculine word ending in -a (for example, do we include words ending in -ista, as they are of the common gender, but in a given instance could be masculine), determine if any productive suffixes (like -ista) meet our criteria, and then determine the number of nouns in Spanish, which is not finite :-) Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 20:46
  • 1
    Interesting question! I've been browsing the NGLE because they give the percentage of verbs of the 1st/2nd/3rd conjugation, so I thought maybe they did the same thing for nouns, but no luck so far. Let's see if someone finds some paper on the subject!
    – Yay
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 17:02
  • 1
    More importantly, how would you count nouns that could be both? How do you adjust for the fact that language changes all the time, so new nouns are created all the time while archaic ones are dropped?
    – Paul
    Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 15:10
  • All of you pose some really intelligent, well thought-out questions, some of which touch on what I've been grappling with during the past few days as I've attempted to approach what I thought would be a simple question to answer. In fact, I have a bit of a headache as I try to wrap it all up (although truth be told, the headache probably has more to do with the oven that keeps leaking gas). All environmental problems aside, I'm going to post a quick answer to some pseudo-scientific research I did. It might not meet the standards of the uber erudite, but at least I made the attempt.
    – Lisa Beck
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 6:32

2 Answers 2

5

Here is a quick answer to a question that was a bit more challenging to answer than I had anticipated. Using my best estimates off of some pseudo-scientific research I conducted recently (link to potential paper/article and/or slide show to follow), my guess is that approximately .5 percent of nouns with feminine grammatical gender end in -o. In this study, that looked at 1,800 of the most frequent nouns in Spanish, I only found three -- la mano, la foto, and la moto. Approximately 3 percent of nouns with masculine grammatical gender end in -a. These include words such as "el día," "el idioma," and "el clima." These nouns I refer to do not include nouns that have both biological and grammatical gender.

Among those nouns that take both, approximately 7 percent of these end in -a and are used for both male and female. Examples of these include "el artista," "el turista," and "el especialista." 3 percent of nouns that have both biological and grammatical gender and end in -o are feminine (and also masculine). Some are disputed (such as "miembro") but some of the more commonly known ones are "la soldado," "la testigo," and "la modelo." For beginning students of Spanish, keep in mind that articles (definite or indefinite) and adjectives modifying these nouns must match biological gender. In other words, if your mom is an artist you would refer to her as "una artista," not "un artista."

If anyone disputes any of the above or knows of a more rigorous study than mine, which only examined 1,800 of the most frequent nouns, please share it with us here. If it is a more worthwhile study than my own, I'll even give up the checkmark for it.

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  • 2
    Just commenting on the three female gender exceptions (la mano, la foto, la moto). "Foto" and "moto" are short for "fotografía" and "motocicleta", both ending in -a, so the gender rule stills apply. Regarding "la mano", that it's related to the origin of the word in Latin (I believe), and back then was a feminine gender. You can see this when using the plural "las manitas", or when you say "las manecillas del reloj" (long and short hands of the analog clock). Maybe some of the wise folks here can give more precise input on this. Very interesting numbers in your 1800 frequent nouns study.
    – Delonix R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 16:00
  • 1
    I agree with @DelonixR., the correct words for moto and foto are motocicleta and fotografía. About manitas, I think that vary regionally. In Chile for example we say las manitos. I have a coworker from Venezuela who says they also use manitos but a coworker from México says they use manitas. Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 16:34
  • Gracias for the comment and the compliment, @DelonixR. Just so everyone knows, I am aware that "foto" and "moto" are short for longer words that are feminine, but I am glad you mentioned it because perhaps others do not know that. For the record, though, this study wasn't so much about gender exceptions as it was about the orthography of a word. I simply searched for words that ended in -o, regardless of whether they were shortened from a longer word. More importantly, I'm really glad you found this interesting and thanks for letting me know.
    – Lisa Beck
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 17:17
  • 1
    As mentioned in my comment to Delonix R., I am aware that "moto" and "foto" are shorter versions of "motocicleta" and "fotografía." I wouldn't consider them "incorrect," however. Informal? Sure, but "motocicleta" and "fotografía" aren't the "correct" words; they are more formal and fuller/longer/more complete words that represent the same concept.
    – Lisa Beck
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 17:28
  • @LisaBeck Nice job. Where did you get the list of those 1800 nouns? Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 18:30
3

I scanned the entire Wiktionary database dump looking for nouns that didn't match the gender rules. This works by examining the wikitags of each noun and comparing it to the expected endings of l-o-n-e-r-s and d-ión-z-a, so it should be as accurate as the Wiktionary pages are. Nouns with dual tags like {mf} were skipped. The source code is available in my github as part of the WordTree package. After building the Spanish database with wordtree.py you can run gender.py to replicate these results: https://github.com/SurpriseDog/WordTree


Results

Of the top 7.7 thousand nouns, 3% did not follow the gender rules. I am limiting the search here to only nouns with a usage frequency greater than 1 fpm (frequency per million) in the OpenSubtitles frequency list to show a more accurate percentage of the nouns that are actually used.

For nouns ending in a, I found 2.5K nouns of which 1.7% were rogues. I am excluding nouns ending in -ma because there is no pattern. You have to memorize them as 39% of -ma nouns are masculine and 61% are feminine.

For nouns ending in o, I found 2.34K nouns of which 0.3% were rogues. In fact there were only 7 with a usage frequency greater than 1 fpm: La mano, foto, disco, seo, quimio, polio.

For nouns ending in e, I found 629 nouns of which 11% were rogues. Nouns ending in -dumbre like: La muchedumbre are always feminine.


Full List

Stack Exchange won't let me post the full list here because of character limits, so here is every word over 0.2 fpm. The strange 2 letter words are usually alphabetical letters like "La de" = the letter D. Wiktionary includes it, so that's why the program does too. Looking at the list, you will also notice a lot of loanwords here like El jazz or El yoga.

If you think a word shouldn't be included, (for example a profession like El poeta that could be masculine or feminine), check the associated Wiktionary page to see if there is an issue there that I am sourcing from here. In the case of El poeta, the feminine is sometimes La poetisa which is why they listed the noun as masculine.

FPM:   Word:            Gender:
34231  de               m -> f 
21603  la               f -> m 
7183   te               m -> f 
1942   he               m -> f 
1477   ese              m -> f 
935    día              f -> m 
925    noche            m -> f 
839    gente            m -> f 
666    madre            m -> f 
590    mujer            m -> f 
542    parte            m -> f 
470    razón            m -> f 
454    tarde            m -> f 
424    ve               m -> f 
332    contra           f -> m 
301    suerte           m -> f 
288    muerte           m -> f 
266    mano             m -> f 
245    clase            m -> f 
236    sangre           m -> f 
157    diez             f -> m 
153    calle            m -> f 
152    orden            m -> f 
135    frente           m -> f 
123    haz              f -> m 
117    mente            m -> f 
115    foto             m -> f 
107    hambre           m -> f 
106    normal           m -> f 
100    cualquiera       f -> m 
98     sal              m -> f 
97     cárcel           m -> f 
93     avión            f -> m 
91     nave             m -> f 
85     señal            m -> f 
83     carne            m -> f 
77     base             m -> f 
75     llave            m -> f 
74     especie          m -> f 
72     planeta          f -> m 
64     guardia          f -> m 
61     piel             m -> f 
55     fe               m -> f 
55     leche            m -> f 
53     camión           f -> m 
52     imagen           m -> f 
49     serie            m -> f 
44     central          m -> f 
40     fuente           m -> f 
38     dia              f -> m 
35     disco            m -> f 
34     mapa             f -> m 
34     nieve            m -> f 
33     clave            m -> f 
32     corriente        m -> f 
30     lord             f -> m 
28     miel             m -> f 
28     crisis           m -> f 
27     torre            m -> f 
26     medianoche       m -> f 
25     miss             m -> f 
24     superficie       m -> f 
24     madame           m -> f 
23     tele             m -> f 
23     fiebre           m -> f 
23     flor             m -> f 
22     moto             m -> f 
21     serpiente        m -> f 
21     frase            m -> f 
21     moral            m -> f 
20     arroz            f -> m 
20     costumbre        m -> f 
18     guión            f -> m 
16     fase             m -> f 
16     mediodía         f -> m 
15     miente           m -> f 
15     dosis            m -> f 
14     maíz             f -> m 
14     disfraz          f -> m 
14     bla              f -> m 
13     vodka            f -> m 
13     constante        m -> f 
12     pa               f -> m 
12     permanente       m -> f 
12     nube             m -> f 
12     be               m -> f 
12     marica           f -> m 
12     ave              m -> f 
11     lápiz            f -> m 
11     ataúd            f -> m 
11     cal              m -> f 
11     poeta            f -> m 
10     ajedrez          f -> m 
10     jazz             f -> m 
9.9    suite            m -> f 
9.6    gripe            m -> f 
9.6    postal           m -> f 
9.3    césped           f -> m 
9.3    inicial          m -> f 
9.1    récord           f -> m 
8.8    cometa           f -> m 
8.8    morgue           m -> f 
8.7    milord           f -> m 
8.6    sida             f -> m 
8.3    escriba          f -> m 
8.2    yoga             f -> m 
7.9    sobredosis       m -> f 
7.8    huésped          f -> m 
7.5    digital          m -> f 
7.4    cha              f -> m 
7.4    masacre          m -> f 
7.2    champaña         f -> m 
7.1    peste            m -> f 
6.8    tequila          f -> m 
6.5    profeta          f -> m 
6.5    anfitrión        f -> m 
6.3    sede             m -> f 
6.0    buda             f -> m 
6.0    gorila           f -> m 
5.9    labor            m -> f 
5.8    tos              m -> f 
5.5    spa              f -> m 
5.4    aprendiz         f -> m 
5.3    cumbre           m -> f 
5.3    barbie           m -> f 
5.1    tesis            m -> f 
5.0    record           f -> m 
5.0    seo              m -> f 
4.9    élite            m -> f 
4.9    che              m -> f 
4.9    catástrofe       m -> f 
4.7    labial           m -> f 
4.6    hipótesis        m -> f 
4.5    pirámide         m -> f 
4.4    circular         m -> f 
4.4    catedral         m -> f 
4.2    col              m -> f 
4.1    etcétera         f -> m 
3.8    diabetes         m -> f 
3.7    altavoz          f -> m 
3.7    golden           m -> f 
3.6    capataz          f -> m 
3.5    vacante          m -> f 
3.3    espiral          m -> f 
3.3    tranvía          f -> m 
3.2    escorpión        f -> m 
3.2    round            f -> m 
3.2    dote             m -> f 
3.1    violeta          f -> m 
3.1    pose             m -> f 
3.1    parálisis        m -> f 
3.0    higiene          m -> f 
3.0    patente          m -> f 
2.9    yakuza           f -> m 
2.9    metrópolis       m -> f 
2.9    fez              f -> m 
2.7    mugre            m -> f 
2.7    hipnosis         m -> f 
2.7    land             f -> m 
2.6    boulevard        f -> m 
2.6    tuberculosis     m -> f 
2.6    quimio           m -> f 
2.5    fa               f -> m 
2.5    abad             f -> m 
2.5    jerez            f -> m 
2.5    sucursal         m -> f 
2.5    elite            m -> f 
2.5    ye               m -> f 
2.4    pelvis           m -> f 
2.4    hepatitis        m -> f 
2.3    casanova         f -> m 
2.3    liebre           m -> f 
2.2    guion            f -> m 
2.2    génesis          m -> f 
2.2    sífilis          m -> f 
2.2    ale              m -> f 
2.2    incertidumbre    m -> f 
2.2    integral         m -> f 
2.2    nasal            m -> f 
2.1    psicosis         m -> f 
2.1    vocal            m -> f 
2.1    stand            f -> m 
2.1    hinchazón        m -> f 
2.0    artritis         m -> f 
2.0    podre            m -> f 
2.0    centinela        f -> m 
2.0    problemita       f -> m 
1.9    prótesis         m -> f 
1.9    muchedumbre      m -> f 
1.9    guardarropa      f -> m 
1.9    tanga            f -> m 
1.9    elle             m -> f 
1.9    ro               m -> f 
1.8    sor              m -> f 
1.7    diálisis         m -> f 
1.7    hélice           m -> f 
1.7    persa            f -> m 
1.7    gorrión          f -> m 
1.6    avestruz         f -> m 
1.6    nirvana          f -> m 
1.6    hold             f -> m 
1.6    cáliz            f -> m 
1.5    sien             m -> f 
1.5    res              m -> f 
1.5    ce               m -> f 
1.5    pe               m -> f 
1.5    chakra           f -> m 
1.4    sarampión        f -> m 
1.4    servidumbre      m -> f 
1.4    aeronave         m -> f 
1.4    variable         m -> f 
1.4    apendicitis      m -> f 
1.4    ingle            m -> f 
1.4    desliz           f -> m 
1.3    alcatraz         f -> m 
1.3    boutique         m -> f 
1.3    némesis          m -> f 
1.3    radial           m -> f 
1.3    meningitis       m -> f 
1.3    cloud            f -> m 
1.3    yugular          m -> f 
1.3    hijoputa         f -> m 
1.2    borgoña          f -> m 
1.2    vibrante         m -> f 
1.2    esclerosis       m -> f 
1.2    tapiz            f -> m 
1.2    quid             f -> m 
1.2    balboa           f -> m 
1.2    vigía            f -> m 
1.2    picazón          m -> f 
1.2    mantis           m -> f 
1.1    patriarca        f -> m 
1.1    compa            f -> m 
1.1    exmujer          m -> f 
1.1    mantra           f -> m 
1.1    neurosis         m -> f 
1.1    embrión          f -> m 
1.1    polio            m -> f 
1.1    underground      f -> m 
1.1    intemperie       m -> f 
1.1    regaliz          f -> m 
1.0    ge               m -> f 
1.0    mousse           m -> f 
1.0    squad            f -> m 
1.0    caries           m -> f 
1.0    lis              m -> f 
1.0    comezón          m -> f 
1.0    fondue           m -> f 
1.0    friend           f -> m 
1.0    druida           f -> m 
1.0    coliflor         m -> f 
1.0    psique           m -> f 
1.0    led              f -> m 
1.0    ardid            f -> m 
0.9    snowboard        f -> m 
0.9    centurión        f -> m 
0.9    chita            f -> m 
0.9    tata             f -> m 
0.9    estirpe          m -> f 
0.9    esfinge          m -> f 
0.9    credencial       m -> f 
0.9    vitro            m -> f 
0.9    mole             m -> f 
0.9    bilis            m -> f 
0.9    califa           f -> m 
0.9    insecticida      f -> m 
0.9    ébola            f -> m 
0.9    epidural         m -> f 
0.9    índole           m -> f 
0.9    rave             m -> f 
0.9    barniz           f -> m 
0.9    metamorfosis     m -> f 
0.9    ene              m -> f 
0.9    praxis           m -> f 
0.8    filial           m -> f 
0.8    laringe          m -> f 
0.8    cúspide          m -> f 
0.8    libido           m -> f 
0.8    bastión          f -> m 
0.8    problemilla      f -> m 
0.8    córdoba          f -> m 
0.8    performance      m -> f 
0.8    tweed            f -> m 
0.8    multinacional    m -> f 
0.8    marimacho        m -> f 
0.8    diócesis         m -> f 
0.8    variante         m -> f 
0.8    albornoz         f -> m 
0.8    fashion          f -> m 
0.8    koala            f -> m 
0.7    hache            m -> f 
0.7    diagonal         m -> f 
0.7    síntesis         m -> f 
0.7    armazón          m -> f 
0.7    estasis          m -> f 
0.7    nao              m -> f 
0.7    debacle          m -> f 
0.7    ere              m -> f 
0.7    tragaperras      m -> f 
0.7    metástasis       m -> f 
0.6    barbarie         m -> f 
0.6    semifinal        m -> f 
0.6    plebe            m -> f 
0.6    cirrosis         m -> f 
0.6    calvicie         m -> f 
0.6    apartheid        f -> m 
0.6    matiz            f -> m 
0.6    sinapsis         m -> f 
0.6    simba            f -> m 
0.6    encefalitis      m -> f 
0.6    pesticida        f -> m 
0.6    expo             m -> f 
0.6    bronquitis       m -> f 
0.6    uve              m -> f 
0.6    celulitis        m -> f 
0.6    podredumbre      m -> f 
0.6    fame             m -> f 
0.5    lumbre           m -> f 
0.5    conjuntivitis    m -> f 
0.5    fibrosis         m -> f 
0.5    trombosis        m -> f 
0.5    laúd             f -> m 
0.5    premiere         m -> f 
0.5    magenta          f -> m 
0.5    sinusitis        m -> f 
0.5    transversal      m -> f 
0.5    sepsis           m -> f 
0.5    quiz             f -> m 
0.5    ele              m -> f 
0.5    mediodia         f -> m 
0.5    efigie           m -> f 
0.5    falange          m -> f 
0.5    blitz            f -> m 
0.5    planicie         m -> f 
0.5    fedora           f -> m 
0.5    baguette         m -> f 
0.4    equis            m -> f 
0.4    astronave        m -> f 
0.4    maison           m -> f 
0.4    pardiez          f -> m 
0.4    manito           m -> f 
0.4    sintaxis         m -> f 
0.4    prole            m -> f 
0.4    necrosis         m -> f 
0.4    tragaluz         f -> m 
0.4    cortacésped      f -> m 
0.4    autómata         f -> m 
0.4    apa              f -> m 
0.4    terranova        f -> m 
0.4    intro            m -> f 
0.4    antifaz          f -> m 
0.4    taja             f -> m 
0.4    bocata           f -> m 
0.4    hidroavión       f -> m 
0.4    groupie          m -> f 
0.4    seño             m -> f 
0.4    gillette         m -> f 
0.4    mononucleosis    m -> f 
0.4    burka            f -> m 
0.4    hertz            f -> m 
0.4    catequesis       m -> f 
0.4    contraparte      m -> f 
0.4    laringitis       m -> f 
0.4    crin             m -> f 
0.4    acid             f -> m 
0.4    fotosíntesis     m -> f 
0.4    hermafrodita     f -> m 
0.4    chinche          m -> f 
0.4    mod              f -> m 
0.4    direccional      m -> f 
0.4    telequinesis     m -> f 
0.4    gouda            f -> m 
0.4    átame            m -> f 
0.4    simbiosis        m -> f 
0.4    aguamiel         m -> f 
0.4    miura            f -> m 
0.4    delicatessen     m -> f 
0.4    interfase        m -> f 
0.4    pastoral         m -> f 
0.4    laude            m -> f 
0.3    progenie         m -> f 
0.3    arquidiócesis    m -> f 
0.3    recortada        f -> m 
0.3    epidermis        m -> f 
0.3    beluga           f -> m 
0.3    psiquis          m -> f 
0.3    info             m -> f 
0.3    catarsis         m -> f 
0.3    comadre          m -> f 
0.3    marsala          f -> m 
0.3    escoliosis       m -> f 
0.3    anginas          m -> f 
0.3    ion              f -> m 
0.3    sinopsis         m -> f 
0.3    herbicida        f -> m 
0.3    tangente         m -> f 
0.3    furgo            m -> f 
0.3    mandala          f -> m 
0.3    anastomosis      m -> f 
0.3    kibutz           f -> m 
0.3    ratio            m -> f 
0.3    erre             m -> f 
0.3    estenosis        m -> f 
0.3    sud              f -> m 
0.3    notición         f -> m 
0.3    patronal         m -> f 
0.3    amniocentesis    m -> f 
0.3    osteoporosis     m -> f 
0.3    colitis          m -> f 
0.3    bacanal          m -> f 
0.3    esturión         f -> m 
0.3    eme              m -> f 
0.3    antítesis        m -> f 
0.3    gastritis        m -> f 
0.3    altamar          m -> f 
0.3    vedette          m -> f 
0.3    akita            f -> m 
0.3    gastroenteritis  m -> f 
0.3    raid             f -> m 
0.3    acrópolis        m -> f 
0.3    pancreatitis     m -> f 
0.2    offshore         m -> f 
0.2    password         f -> m 
0.2    nutella          f -> m 
0.2    andaluz          f -> m 
0.2    sazón            m -> f 
0.2    depre            m -> f 
0.2    contracorriente  m -> f 
0.2    endocarditis     m -> f 
0.2    hiel             m -> f 
0.2    troupe           m -> f 
0.2    sura             f -> m 
0.2    guardiamarina    f -> m 
0.2    amigdalitis      m -> f 
0.2    bocajarro        m -> f 
0.2    dermatitis       m -> f 
0.2    promo            m -> f 
0.2    desazón          m -> f 
0.2    peritonitis      m -> f 
0.2    euskera          f -> m 
0.2    kibbutz          f -> m 
0.2    segur            m -> f 
0.2    feta             f -> m 
0.2    archidiócesis    m -> f 
0.2    psoriasis        m -> f 
0.2    aluvión          f -> m 
0.2    ska              f -> m 
0.2    alud             f -> m 
0.2    halitosis        m -> f 
0.2    simiente         m -> f 
0.2    acidosis         m -> f 
0.2    efe              m -> f 
0

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