Many nouns that refer to humans and other animals have both a masculine and a feminine form. In this way, we can make a distinction between male cats and female cats, and between a boy and a girl.
| the cat | el gato |
| the catFEM | la gata |
| the boy | el chico |
| the girl | la chica |
The nouns above are called declinable nouns, which means that they change their ending according to their gender. When we do not know the gender of a living being, we use the masculine form of the noun.
While practicing the lessons, you will sometimes see the symbol FEM, which is the symbol for female. For example the catFEM refers to a female cat, and should be translated with gata and not with gato.
