El Gato or La Gata?

DarkoA1Kwiziq community member

El Gato or La Gata?

Why is una gata? I thought this is male noun un or el gato.

Asked 3 years ago
InmaKwiziq team member

Hola Darko,

In Spanish we have a word for a female animal and a male animal (in most cases) unlike in English where you need to add the word male or female to specify most of the time; so we have for example:

un gato / una gat(a male cat / a female cat)

un perro / una perra (a male dog / a female dog)

un conejo / una coneja (a male rabbit / a female rabbit)

Some of them as you can see have an ending -o for male and an ending -a for female.  Other animals have a specific noun for a male an a female, for example:

un caballo (a horse) / una yegua (a mare)

And some have just one form for both, in which case we add the words macho or hembra:

una tortuga macho (a male turtle )una tortuga hembra (a female turtle)

This lesson talks about living creatures and their gender. Have a look here.

At the end of the lesson you will also find a useful list of animals in Spanish.

I hope this helps.

Saludos

Inma

El Gato or La Gata?

Why is una gata? I thought this is male noun un or el gato.

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