Nouns in Spanish and How They Are Used

Nouns in Spanish and How They Are Used Nouns are an essential part of speech in Spanish and English and can be found in most sentences. Definition of ‘Noun’ In English and Spanish, a noun is a word that refers to and names a person, place, thing, concept, entity, or action. By itself, a noun does not indicate any action or indicate how it relates to other words. Grammatically, a noun can serve as the subject of a sentence or the object of a verb or preposition. Nouns can also be described by adjectives or replaced by  pronouns. Similarities and Differences Between Nouns in Spanish and English Nouns function in much the same way in Spanish and English. They typically but not necessarily come before a verb and relate to other parts of speech in similar ways. They can be singular or plural. But there are at least three major differences: Spanish nouns have gender. Nouns listed as such in dictionaries are either masculine or feminine. The designation is often arbitrary - some words associated with males are feminine, and a word such as persona (person) is feminine whether it refers to males or females. Some words can be masculine or feminine depending on the meaning. The significance of gender is that masculine nouns are accompanied by masculine adjectives, and feminine nouns use feminine adjectives.Complete sentences in Spanish do not need nouns (or even pronouns)  if the meaning remains clear without them, in part because verb conjugation and gendered adjectives give more information about the subject in Spanish than they do in English. For example, rather than saying Mi coche es rojo for My car is red (coche is the word for car) you could say merely Es rojo if its clear what youre talking about.In English it is very common for nouns to function as adjectives; such nouns are called attributive nouns. For example, in dog leash, dog is an attributive noun. But with rare exceptions, Spanish connects the descriptive noun to the main noun using a preposition, often de. Thus a dog leash is either correa de perro (literally, leash of dog) or correa para perros (leash for dogs). Types of Spanish Nouns Spanish nouns can be classified in numerous ways; six types are listed below. The categories listed here are not exclusive - most nouns in fact fit into more than one category. And since Spanish and English both come from Indo-European, these categories apply to English as well. Common nouns are the most common type of noun. A common noun refers to things, being or concepts without referring to a specific one of them. For example, humano (human) is a common noun, but Catrina is not, because it refers to a specific human. Other examples of common nouns include ordenador (computer), valle (valley), felicidad (happiness), and grupo (group).Proper nouns refer to a specific thing or being. As in English, Spanish proper nouns are typically capitalized. Examples of proper nouns include Casa Blanca (White House), Enrique (Henry), Panam (Panama), and Torre Eiffel (Eiffel Tower). Some nouns can be either common or proper, depending on the context. For example, Luna is a proper noun when referring to the moon that circles the Earth (note the capitalization), while luna is a common noun when it refers to a planetary satellite in general.Countable nouns refer to entities that can be counted. Examples include casa (house), loma (hill), mà ³vil (cellphone), and nariz (nos e).Uncountable nouns, sometimes called partitive nouns, refer to things that cant be counted, such as concepts. Examples include tristeza (sadness), indignacià ³n (anger), and opulencia (opulence). Many nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on how they are used. For example, leche (milk) is countable when it refers to types of milk but uncountable when referring to quantities. Collective nouns are used to represent a group of individual nouns. Examples of collective nouns include rebaà ±o  (flock),  multitud (multitude), and equipo (team).Abstract nouns refer to qualities or concepts rather than things or beings. Examples include inteligencia (intelligence), miedo (fright), and virtud (virtue). Key Takeaways Nouns in English in Spanish function in sentences in very similar ways and can be classified in the same ways.A key difference between the nouns of the two languages is that Spanish nouns have gender.Pronouns sometimes substitute for nouns, and in Spanish subject nouns are frequently omitted from complete sentences.