First of all we need to take into account that there needs to be a relation between article (el . la) and noun (any word that denotes an animal, person, or thing). In Spanish we use article EL or UN if we have a masculine word, and article LA or UNA if there is a feminine word. These articles also have plural forms. Find out more about articles in Spanish here!
They are: Los or unos (plural, masculine), las or unas (plural, feminine). Now that you have this part down, we’ll also learn how to make nouns in Spanish, plurals. There are three basic rules you need to learn and you can also watch them on our video. (There are more rules but they are exceptions or very particular situations).
Plurals: What You Need to Know…
Number one: Most words in Spanish will end in S if they are plural. Add an S if the word ends in A, E, or O. Look at these examples and see the difference: la pluma- las plumas, el gallo- los gallos, un perro- unos perros, una liebre – unas liebres.
Number two: If the word ends in a consonant, add ER. Pay attention to words that end in -ÓN, -L, -Y, -D, and -R. Check out these examples: El corazón – Los corazones (the hearts); El pantalón (the pants)- Los pantalones; also El árbol – Los árboles (the trees); El rey – Los reyes (the kings); La pared – Las paredes (the walls); also El amor – Los amores (the love).
Finally, if the word happens to end in Z, change its spelling with -CES at the end. So it would look like this: El Pez – Los peces; el lápiz – los lápices; la nariz – Las narices.
The exceptions…
As usual, in Spanish there’s always an exception to anything, so here you have them regarding plurals:
If a noun ends in -S or -X there can be two particular situations: If the noun has an accent in the last syllable (palabra aguda), you will add -ES to form its plural.
Anís – Anises; compás – compases.
Also, if the word that ends in -S or -X, doesn’t have that accent at the end of the word, then the word will remain the same and ONLY the article will indicate if it’s plural or singular. Check this out!
El torax – Los torax (the chest); also El paréntesis – Los paréntesis (the parenthesis); and El viernes – Los viernes (Fridays).
Some nouns only allow a singular form:
Cardinal directions like: el este (the East), also el oeste (the West), el norte (the North), also, el sur (the South); la sed (the thirst), la tez (the complexion), el caos (the chaos), la salud (the health).
Some nouns only allow a plural form: las gafas (the glasses), las gárgaras (the gargles), los modales (the manners), las afueras (the outskirts), las vacaciones (the vacations).
We hope you have found this post useful and that you have clarified some doubts. Let us know if it helped you or if you have any question.
