Gender of Animals in Spanish

Gender of Animals in Spanish If you think that masculine nouns in Spanish are always used with referring to males and feminine nouns when referring to females, your assumption would be wrong - especially when talking about animals. Like most nouns, the names for nearly all animals are either masculine or feminine. For example, the word for giraffe, jirafa is feminine, and it can be used when referring to any giraffe, whether male or female. Similarly, rinoceronte is masculine, and it can be used to refer to rhinoceroses of either sex. The same is done with people. El humano (human) is masculine even when referring to a woman or girl, and la persona (person) is feminine even when referring to a man or boy. Animals With Sex-Differentiated Names Some animals have different names for each sex. For example, a perro is a male dog, and a perra is a female dog or bitch. The names dont have to be so similar: a cow is una vaca, while a bull is un toro, even though they refer to the same species of animal. As in these examples, it is common, although not universal, for animals with sex-differentiated names in Spanish to have differentiated names in English as well. Some other animals with different names for the sexes are: el lagarto (male lizard), la lagarta (female lizard)el elefante (male elephant), la elefanta (female elephant)el caballo (stallion), la yegua (mare)el carnero (ram), la oveja (sheep)el gallo (rooster), la gallina (hen)el macho (billy goat), la cabra (nanny goat) Generally, the masculine form can be thought of as the default name for the type of species. Thus if you dont know whether a cat is male or female, its fine to refer to it as un gato. But a cat known to be female can be referred to as una gata. Groups of Animals In the case of animals whose names vary with the sex, if you have a group of animals, some female and some male, they should be referred to by the masculine plural: thus los gatos or los perros. But if the name of the animal is invariably feminine, the feminine must still be used: las jirafas (even for a group of males) or las araà ±as (spiders). In a very few cases where each sex has a different name - they include vaca, cabra, and oveja - the feminine form can be pluralized to represent a group. (The same can be true in English, as cattle might informally be referred to as cows even if bulls are part of the mix.) Macho/Hembra If you need to indicate the sex of an animal with a undifferentiated name, you can add the word macho for male or hembra for female: la jirafa hembra, the female giraffela jirafa macho, the male giraffeel dinosaurio macho, the male dinosaurel dinosaurio hembra, the female dinosaur Note that macho and hembra, however, are traditionally considered to be either nouns or invariable adjectives. Thus they do not vary in form with gender or number: las jirafas hembra, the female giraffeslas jirafas macho, the male giraffes Although treating macho and hembra as invariable adjectives is the grammatically safe thing to do, in real life speakers often make them plural. You should stick to the traditional form in formal writing, however. Personal Names When referring to animals with personal names (such as pets), you should use adjectives whose gender matches the given name of the animal when using that name as the subject of a sentence: Pablo, la jirafa ms alta del zoo, est enfermo. (Pablo, the zoos tallest giraffe, is sick.)Su hmster negro se llama Elena. Elena es muy guapa. (His black hamster is named Elena. Elena is very pretty. Note the change in grammar depending on whether the category name or given name is the grammatical subject.) Key Takeaways The category or species names for most animals are either masculine or feminine, and the gender for the animal name is used whether a specific animal in male or female.Some animals have separate names for each sex, such as a cow being una vaca and a bull being un toro.When the subject of a sentence is the personal name of an animal, such a pet, the accompanying adjectives should match the animals sex rather than that of its species name.

Deep POV

Deep POV Deep POV Deep POV By Maeve Maddox One of the advantages of belonging to a writers group is that every member has different strengths and areas of expertise. As a result, we are continually learning from one another. For example, I learned about Deep POV (Point of View) from one of my colleagues. I was already familiar with First Person, Third Person, and Omniscient, but the term Deep POV was unfamiliar to me. Now that I know about it, I strive to achieve it, but its not an easy technique to master. Another term for Deep POV is limited Third Person. Its a technique that infuses Third Person POV with the intimacy of First Person Unlike ordinary Third Person, limited Third Person does away with dialogue tags and verbs such as see, notice, understand, feel, realize and think, which suggest telling as opposed to showing. Compare the following passages. Both are written in Third Person. Judy ran down the alley. She thought she could hear footsteps behind her. She realized now that she should have stayed on the main street. Her tight skirt and high heels were slowing her down. Judy picked up her pace. Footsteps sounded in her ears. Imagination? Maybe, but what if that spooky-looking man at the corner had followed her into the alley? Damn this tight skirt. She could hardly move her knees, let alone run. And these heels! What had possessed her to buy anything this high? Momma warned her about vanity. Writing in limited Third Person usually involves the expenditure of more words, but, if done effectively, the extra words add to the readers enjoyment by pulling him more deeply into the events narrated. Deep POV is to the writer what method acting is to the actor. It requires the writer to submerge herself in the character from whose point of view a scene is being seen. It requires a casting off of all inhibitions. The writer becomes the character. A useful exercise for the writer who prefers to write in Third Person is to write a scene in First Person, and then change all the nouns and pronouns to Third Person. For more on Deep POV, check out these links: Karen Kelley (Update: no longer active) Women on Writing Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know50 Idioms About Arms, Hands, and Fingers3 Types of Essays Are Models for Professional Writing Forms