Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

Module B: Our school community  • 35 Words ending in -e , -n , and -ista often do not have a separate feminine form: el estudiante la estudiante el joven la joven el cliente la cliente el artista la artista As the Spanish language developed from Latin, both the neutral and masculine noun endings adopted the same pronunciation, and Spanish was left with only two gender categories instead of three. For this reason, the masculine form in Spanish is also the neutral form. For example, when speaking about a pro- fessor whose gender we do not know, we will use profesor . We will only use profesora once we know the professor is a woman. As another example, padres means both “fathers” and “parents.” Despite the linguistic preference for using the masculine form as the default, language is dynamic, and it is essential to respect gender identity. Here are a few possibilities for talking about people without linguistically assigning them a gender: • Use persona , and therefore feminine adjectives, regardless of the gender of the person in question. Es una persona trabajadora. • Use the letter x in place of the masculine o . (You may also see @, but that symbol still suggests a binary. X is more inclusive.) ¡Hola a todxs!* • Use the letter e in place of the masculine o or feminine a . This is easier to pronounce than the x and already exists in Spanish in words such as estudiante and inteligente . Elle es muy talentose.* * These methods are not officially recognized as of 2021, but they are in use in many spaces that are attentive to inclusion. More nouns Masculino año year (nouns ending in -o are usually masculine) país country (singular nouns ending in -s are usually masculine) problema problem (nouns ending in -ma are often masculine) tiempo time, weather mundo world trabajo work, job