Spanish Noun Suffixes and the Gender Each One Gives
By Michael McGettrick and Sergio Linares-HernandesUpdated 12 October 2026
A Spanish noun suffix tells you what the noun means and its gender. Feminine suffixes are pink with a double underline, masculine blue with a single one:
Quick check
Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.
Spot the mistake
0/3Tap the wrong article.
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Spanish noun suffixes at a glance
The whole system on one screen. The first four rows do most of the work.
| Suffix | Gender | Built from | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ción, -sión | fem. | a verb | |
| -dad, -tad | fem. | an adjective | |
| - | masc. | a verb | |
| -ez, -eza | fem. | an adjective | |
| -ura | fem. | an adjective | |
| -aje | masc. | a verb, noun | |
| -ería | fem. | a noun | |
| -ismo | masc. | noun, adj. | |
| -ista | both | noun | , |
-ción and -sión: the action of a verb
-ción turns a verb into the noun for its action or its result. Every noun in -ción is feminine.
| Verb | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| | the construction |
| | the information |
| | the education |
| | the decision |
-sión is the same suffix after some stems, and just as feminine: .
.- It was a difficult decision.
English -tion words usually come across whole: nation is , relation is . That shortcut has its own page, Spanish cognate patterns.
-dad and -tad: the quality of an adjective
-dad (often -idad) turns an adjective into the quality it names. Every noun in -dad or -tad is feminine.
| Adjective | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| | reality |
| | possibility |
| | happiness |
| | freedom |
| | difficulty |
Notice the stem shifting: becomes felic-, becomes posibil-. English -ty maps onto -dad: university is .
.- Freedom is important.
-miento: the masculine action noun
Here the gender flips. -miento also turns a verb into the noun for its action or result, but it is masculine.
| Verb | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| | the movement |
| | the feeling |
| | the knowledge |
| | the thought |
Nothing in a verb tells you whether it takes -ción or -miento, so learn the noun whole. The ending still settles the article:
.- It was a good thought.
-ez, -eza and -ura: more qualities
Three more ways to turn an adjective into a quality, all feminine. The adjective loses its last vowel first.
| Adjective | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| | speed |
| | sadness |
| | poverty |
| | height |
| | madness |
The rule is about the suffix, not the last letters. A noun that merely ends in -ez or -ura without being built this way keeps its own gender: (the fish) is masculine.
-aje and -ería
-aje names an action or a collection, and it is masculine. -ería names a shop or a quality, and it is feminine.
| Base | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| | the landing |
| | the learning |
| | the character |
| | the bookshop |
| zapatería | the shoe shop |
| | nonsense |
¡ !- Have a good trip! (ends in -aje, so it is masculine too.)¡ !- What nonsense!
Watch : it is a bookshop. A library is .
-ismo and -ista: the idea and the person
-ismo names an idea, a system or an activity, and it is masculine. -ista names the person who follows it or does the job, and it is both: the word stays the same and the article changes.
| Idea (masc.) | Person (both) |
|---|---|
| , |
| , |
periodismo | , |
Adjectives in -ista work the same way: one form for both genders, -s in the plural.
, .- An optimistic boy, an optimistic girl..- They are very selfish.
Mistakes English speakers make
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| -ción is always feminine | |
| -dad is always feminine | |
| - is masculine | |
| -aje is masculine | |
| periodisto | | -ista does not change |
| optimisto | | -ista adjectives: one form |
| (library) | | is a bookshop |
What to do next
- Look at the ending of every new abstract noun before the article.
- Do the sort and spot-the-
drills below. - Then adjective suffixes: -oso, -able, -ante.