Written by Maria Fernandez

The Spanish gender rules are notoriously unreliable, but there's one you can safely follow: nouns ending in 'dad' are feminine. Learn more and listen to twenty-five useful nouns recorded by native speakers.

The Spanish gender rules are notoriously unreliable. So much so, that I'd always advice you to learn every new noun you come across with its article, rather than on its own. This will save you a lot of time and frustration in the middle and long term.

There's one gender rule, however, that's surprisingly reliable. It's a simple one that says: nouns ending in 'dad' are feminine. So far I haven't been able to find any exceptions to this rule.

Nouns ending in 'dad' are a great confidence booster. They take little time to learn and their meaning is easy to guess. Their pronunciation, unfortunately, is a different issue. Take, for instance:

curiosidad   -   curiosity

Whenever you come across a noun ending in 'dad', once you've learned its meaning you should concentrate on how to say the word correctly. That's the trickiest part about those nouns. Remember that the last 'd' is practically non-existent and, more importantly, that they often sound fairly different in English even if they look very similar.

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