1 Professions
In this section you will learn vocabulary for different professions (profesiones, also called oficios), and their gender.
In this activity you will look at several professions and learn how to refer to men and women who have the same profession.
In this activity you will look at several professions and learn how to refer to men and women who have the same profession.
Paso A
To begin by attuning your ear to Spanish, listen to Audio 1, a song about professions. Do not try to understand it, just focus on the rhythm of the language. The following traditional professions are mentioned: botellero ‘bottle seller’, carpintero ‘carpenter’ and panadero ‘baker’.
Paso B
Here is a list of famous people from the Spanish-speaking world. Read who they are, and then complete the table with the correct word for each profession. The first one has been done for you.
Mónica Ojeda, escritora ecuatoriana
Claudia Llosa, directora de cine peruana
Eduardo Galeano, escritor y periodista uruguayo
Guillermo del Toro, director de cine mexicano
Sofía Vergara, actriz colombiana
Luis Fonsi, cantante portorriqueño
Marta Gómez, cantante colombiana
Álvaro Morte, actor español
| Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
singer | cantante | |
writer | ||
director | ||
actor |
Answer
| Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|
singer | cantante | cantante |
writer | escritor | escritora |
director | director | directora |
actor | actor | actriz |
Paso C
Complete the table with the missing masculine and feminine forms of Spanish words for people in these professions. You may want to look up words you don’t know in the dictionary.
| Male | Female |
|---|---|
el pintor | la pintora |
el secretario | |
el recepcionista | |
la estudiante | |
la camarera | |
la repartidora |
Answer
| Male | Female |
|---|---|
el pintor | la pintora |
el secretario | la secretaria |
el recepcionista | la recepcionista |
el estudiante | la estudiante |
el camarero | la camarera |
el repartidor | la repartidora |
Language 1: Gender of professions
Most nouns denoting professional activities have the usual gender markings: -o for male and -a for female. A few follow other patterns or use the same word for both genders.
| Ending | Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|---|
‑o for masculine ‑a for feminine | el diputado | la diputada | member of parliament |
consonant for masculine, consonant + ‑a for feminine | el profesor el bailarín | la profesora la bailarina | teacher dancer |
‑ante ‑ente ‑ista | el estudiante el gerente el artista | la estudiante la gerente la artista | student manager artist |
You will see that the endings in the last row (-ante, -ente and -ista) are the same for masculine and feminine. Note also that the masculine ending -ín has an accent mark while the feminine does not (bailarín/bailarina).
Note that many words for professions end in -ero/-era (as in camarero/camarera) and -or/-ora (as in profesor/profesora).
It is always advisable to check the gender of nouns in the dictionary.
To finish this section, watch this short Video 1 about verbs and verb forms in Spanish and define the following terms. It doesn’t have to be a formal definition, just an explanation in your own words.
1. verb stem
2. verb ending
3. to conjugate
1. verb stem
Definition:
Answer
The verb stem is the part of the verb that is common to all verb forms, the part that is left when the endings are removed, e.g., habl-.
2. verb ending
Definition:
Answer
The verb ending is the part of the verb added to the stem that designates the person and number (‘number’ means whether singular or plural), e.g. -o, -as, -a.
3. to conjugate
Definition:
Answer
To conjugate a verb is to create the adequate verb form according to the person and number.
Language 2: Present tense of verbs ending in -ar
The majority of verbs in Spanish end in -ar, like hablar (‘to speak’). This group of verbs is called the first conjugation. There are also verbs that end in -er or -ir. These belong to the second and the third conjugations respectively.
To conjugate a verb in Spanish, you need to start with the infinitive. This is the form of the verb that you find in the lists of words in a dictionary. In English, the infinitive is preceded by ‘to’, for example ‘to speak’; in Spanish, the infinitive has a particular ending (-ar, -er or -ir).
Remove the -ar, -er or -ir ending from the infinitive. What is left is called the stem, which does not change in the vast majority of Spanish verbs. The stem serves as the base to which we add endings; there is a different ending for each person.
Here are the endings in the singular for all regular verbs ending in -ar.
| HABL-AR | |||
|---|---|---|---|
(yo) | hablo | Hablo japonés. | I speak Japanese. |
(tú) | hablas | Hablas gallego. | You (informal) speak Galician. |
(usted) | habla | Usted habla galés. | You (formal) speak Welsh. |
(él/ella) | habla | Juan habla griego. | John speaks Greek. |
You will have noticed that the verb form for usted (‘you-formal’) takes the same ending as the third person. This happens with all verbs and in all tenses. From now on you will find the usted form in the verb tables listed together with the third person (i.e. ‘he/she’).
OpenLearn - Introduction to Spanish
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