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English:

I'm referring to words like "el tema" or "el lema". Most words ending in "a" are feminine.

This is actually the opposite of a similar question,

¿Por qué es la palabra «mano» femenina?

Spanish:

Me refiero a palabras como "el tema" o "el lema". La mayoría de las palabras que acaban en "a" son femeninas.

Esto es, de hecho, lo opuesto a una pregunta similar,

¿Por qué es la palabra «mano» femenina?

Community
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Tom Au
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3 Answers3

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There is a large group of words that Spanish inherits from Greek which end in "ma" and, following their Greek roots, are masculine. They may even be the majority of words that end in "a" but are masculine.

  • el clima
  • el programa
  • el sistema
  • el lema
  • el tema
  • el problema
  • el idioma
  • el drama

Mostly they're the sorts of words that English might take from Greek. They're scientific or philosophical or technical terms.

Certainly there are other words that are masculine and end in "a". El tequila doesn't come from Greek! But this covers a big class.

Note: Nouns ending in -μα in the nominative and -ματος in the genitive of the third declension are neuter in Greek. That includes κλίμα (clima) and σύστημα (sistema) and πρόγραμμα (programa) and all the rest I know. Of course, Spanish does not have a neuter gender.

In Latin, these words continue to be third declension neuter. Spanish «Sistema» is systēma, systēmatis; «clima» is clima, climatis.

Brian
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  • If I had to guess, I would think that "el tequila" is an indigenous word that the Spaniards appended gender to and moved on with their lives. Well, after passing around the salt and lime, of course. – Aarthi Nov 18 '11 at 04:21
  • For what it's worth, all these words are spelled the exact same way in Portuguese. And they are also all masculine. – Orion Nov 18 '11 at 07:32
  • It would be interesting to know if they all had masculine gender in Latin and Ancient Greek too. If so that would be the reason right there. – hippietrail Nov 18 '11 at 10:17
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    Another non-greek example: "el vodka". Always confuses me, because it's feminine in Slavic languages. – vartec Nov 18 '11 at 10:26
  • @vartec: Are women heavier drinkers in Slavic-speaking regions than in Latin-speaking ones? ;) – Flimzy Nov 18 '11 at 14:46
  • @Flimzy: kind of doubt it ;-) it's just with very few Greek-origin exceptions (much less than in Spanish) in Slavic languages ending with "a" makes it feminine. – vartec Nov 18 '11 at 14:51
  • Ok, so etymology is the key. Makes sense. – Tom Au Nov 18 '11 at 19:44
  • @vartec isn't vodka in slavic just diminutive water, analogous to Spanish aguita? Is vod feminine? – Brian Nov 19 '11 at 02:12
  • @Brian: it is, and yes, voda is feminine. – vartec Nov 19 '11 at 18:21
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    @hippietrail -- yes, they were masculine in Latin and Greek, too. – Kef Schecter Nov 23 '11 at 04:20
  • Actually, they were neuter in Latin and Greek, but Spanish doesn't observe neuterness. – Brian Nov 23 '11 at 08:33
  • @vartec: It seems that the gender of Slavic of languages is much more strongly tied to the sound. Loanwords from other languages that happen to end in -a will almost always be feminine. But Spanish takes a more semantic approach, there are more irregularities and while -a will be a factor, similar meaning to other words will also influence what the gender will be. – hippietrail Nov 23 '11 at 08:37
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    @Brian: It's even more accurate to say that When Latin evolved into Spanish it merged the neuter gender into the masculine. Most if not all of these Greek words were borrowed when Spanish was still Latin. – hippietrail Nov 23 '11 at 08:38
  • @hippietrail: it's also that all of these examples in slavic languages are "klimat, program, system, problem" etc. so not really a case of ending with "a". – vartec Nov 23 '11 at 09:25
  • Otro ejemplo: auriga http://dle.rae.es/?id=4PSleaQ 1. m. Hombre que en las antiguas Grecia y Roma gobernaba los caballos de los carros en las carreras de circo. 2. m. poét. Hombre que gobierna las caballerías de un carruaje. –  May 04 '18 at 20:56
  • Vodka and tequila are masculine in Spanish because licor is masculine. (Same for e.g. rioja wine (vino). – spanishlinguist.us Nov 26 '14 at 22:41
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    @spanishlinguist.us How about "ginebra"? – wimi Sep 29 '20 at 14:55
  • De acuerdo con el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, vodka es ambiguo en cuanto al género. "Sustantivos ambiguos en cuanto al género. Son los que, designando normalmente seres inanimados, admiten su uso en uno u otro género, sin que ello implique cambios de significado: el/la armazón, el/la dracma, el/la mar, el/la vodka". – karloswitt Jul 12 '22 at 13:55
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There is no rule in Spanish that says that all words ending in "a" are feminine, and all words ending in "o" are masculine, so, why shouldn't they have any gender?

Diego
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greuze
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0

Hay algunos casos especiales de palabras terminadas en "-a", cuyo género puede servir tanto para el masculino como para el femenino. Son los denominados "sustantivos comunes en cuanto al género (los que, designando seres animados, tienen una sola forma, la misma para los dos géneros gramaticales)".

En cada enunciado concreto, el género del sustantivo, que se corresponde con el sexo del referente, lo señalan los determinantes y adjetivos con variación genérica: el/la pianista; ese/esa psiquiatra; un buen/una buena profesional.

En el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, en el artículo sobre el género, dentro del subapartado "Formación del femenino en profesiones, cargos, títulos o actividades humanas" podemos leer:

Los que acaban en -a funcionan en su inmensa mayoría como comunes: el/la atleta, el/la cineasta, el/la guía, el/la logopeda, el/la terapeuta, el/la pediatra. En algunos casos, por razones etimológicas, el femenino presenta la terminación culta -isa: profetisa, papisa. En el caso de poeta, existen ambas posibilidades: la poeta/poetisa. También tiene dos femeninos la voz guarda, aunque con matices significativos diversos (→ guarda): la guarda/guardesa. Son asimismo comunes en cuanto al género los sustantivos formados con el sufijo -ista: el/la ascensorista, el/la electricista, el/la taxista. Es excepcional el caso de modista, que a partir del masculino normal el modista ha generado el masculino regresivo modisto.

Fuente: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas

karloswitt
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