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The plural form of nouns in Spanish is relatively easy to learn. There are really only three rules to follow.

1. Nouns ending in a vowel; add s:

hand - hand hands - hands lady - lady ladies - ladies

2. Nouns ending in a consonant; add es:

Lesson - lesson lessons - lessons teacher - professor professors - professors

3. Nouns ending in z; change z to c and add es:

light - light lights - lights nose - nose noses - noses

Notice that under rule 2 above, the example also showed a change in written (and spoken) accentuation:

Becomes lesson lessons

That is because adding es actually adds another syllable to the word and so a different accent rule applies. You may want to review the .

In a nutshell, when words ending in n, s, or a vowel have a spoken stress, the accent mark is used. The word lecciones keeps its spoken stress on the -on syllable, but in the plural form of the word, with -es added, -on is no longer the final syllable and the word conforms to the unmarked configuration.

Okay, that was la parte más fácil. Now you have to know how to add “the” definite article. You see, in Spanish the article, noun and adjective must agree in number and gender. Think of it as a homogeneous noun phrase.

For example, if “the lady” is la señora, then “the ladies” is:

the women

That is, la becomes las, for the feminine gender. The masculine el becomes los in the plural form:

strong man - the strong man

becomes,

strong men - the strong men

Do you see that the article, the noun, and the adjective all become plural?

To anticipate your next question, and offer some help with it, visit:

I hope you find the lessons in this informative and fun site.


learn spanish for 8 year olds     learn spanish 5th grade

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