Catriona: Hello everyone and welcome back to A Zero to a Hero.

Héctor: ¡Hola a todo el mundo!

Catriona: ¿Cómo estás hoy, Héctor?

Héctor: Bien, ¿y tú, Catriona? ¿Todo bien?

Catriona: No, not really. How do you say “confused” in Spanish?

Héctor: “Confundido” for masculine and “confundida” for feminine nouns.

Catriona: So… “Estoy confundida”.

Héctor: Why is that?

Catriona: Well gendered languages are quite tricky. I think specially for English native speakers. So I'm struggling with the different genders in Spanish. 

Héctor: And why is that particularly?

Catriona: I mean I've got to learn what gender the word is, the masculine form, the femenine form, so professions, pronouns, all of that.

Héctor: Welcome to the world of gendered nouns where ambiguity is our daily bread.

Catriona: Who would say that something so binary could be so ambiguous!

Héctor: When you are learning a new language, it is quirks like these which can sometimes become demotivating and give you the sensation you’ll never be able to communicate. Believe me, I’ve been there. Language aspects such as grammatical gender can be quite tricky but there are some principles, some rules of thumb that you can apply and be quite sure you’re speaking correctly.

Catriona: But that would be great, Héctor. I would love to learn these rules of thumb and by the end of this episode have figured out genders in Spanish.

Héctor: OK. Are you ready to become the Master of Spanish Genders?

Catriona: ¡Lista!

Héctor: The only language you learn from scratch is your native language, after that, every new language will have at least a few similarities with your native language. It can be some words, some grammar structures or some sounds, but there will always be others that are completely different.

Catriona: Including the fact that some have grammatical gender…

Héctor: Yes, I mean, you do have the masculine and feminine forms, he and she.

Catriona: True, that is “el” and “ella”, correct?

Héctor: Yes, that's correct. 

Catriona: We did that in a previous episode.

Héctor: Yes, so that is when you are talking about somebody, even with pets and other animals. This is quite different from English, you do address the masculine dog as a  “el” and a femenine dog as a  “ella”.

Catriona: OK, so how, for example, to you ask, What is your mum’s name?

Héctor: ¿Cómo se llama tu mamá?

Catriona: And I would answer…

Héctor: Ella…

Catriona: Wait, wait, wait, don’t tell me… “Ella es Marie”.

Héctor: Yes exactly, you can also use the question as input, that is something that I do a lot when I’m learning a language, especially when I’m a total beginner.

Catriona: What do you mean?

Héctor: Do you remember the question?

Catriona: ¿Cómo se llama tu mamá?

Héctor: Exactly, so you can use part of the question to give the answer: “mi mamá se llama…” or “ella se llama…”

Catriona: OK, and to ask for your dad’s name would be, “¿cómo se llama tu papá?”

Héctor: Yes, “¿cómo se llama tu papá, Catriona?”

Catriona: Él se llama Steward.

Héctor: OK and remember that you can also use the verb “ser” to talk about professions.

Catriona: “Mi mamá es”, how do I say housewife?

Héctor: Ama de casa.

Catriona: “Ama de casa y mi papá es”, how do I say “teacher”?

Héctor: Could be “profesor” or “maestro”. 

Catriona: Él es profesor, o maestro. 

Héctor: Very good.

Catriona: OK, so professions also change depending on the gender, don’t they?

Héctor: Yes, they do. 

Catriona: I remember that in one of our previous episodes you taught me “locutora” to express that I’m a broadcaster and you are an “editor”.

Héctor: Yes, go on!

Catriona: So, what I'm understanding is if a profession is in the masculine form ends with a consonant like “locutor” or “editor”, I have to add the letter “-a” and ta-dah! I made it  feminine! For example, “locutora” and “editora”.

Héctor: I’m impressed by your inductive reasoning and I would definitely encourage all our listeners to take advantage of generalizations when learning a language. This is something that children do all the time when learning their native language. In some cases, we will find some irregularities. For example, I ran as the past of I run and not I runned and we'll definitely find cases where those generalizations might not be applicable but in many times you will get it right or at least close enough to be understood.

Catriona: So, Héctor, what other generalizations can we make regarding genders?

Héctor: Another useful generalization is one that you already know.
Do you remember “vosotros” and “vosotras”?

Catriona: I do, “vosotros” the equivalent of you plural used in European Spanish and it was used with a man-only or a mixed group, and “vosotras” for a female group.

Héctor: Correct, so what rule can you extract from that?

Catriona: That letter “-o” is commonly used with mixed and masculine groups?

Héctor: Well done! So for the pronoun “we”, you use “nosotros”…

Catriona: OK, OK, so I got this one. If I am part of a mixed group I use “nosotros” and “nosotras” if I’m part of a female-only group.

Héctor: You’re nailing it! So now, for “they” we use “ellos”…

Catriona: With a man-only or a mixed group, and “ellas” for a female group.

Héctor: As easy as learning your ABC's…

Catriona: OK, so “él es”, “ella es”. But we have totally skipped the conjugations of verb “ser” for “nosotros”, “vosotros” and “ellos”.

Héctor: Let’s start with “nosotros” and “nosotras”. That would be: “nosotros” and “nosotras somos”.

Catriona: “Nosotros, nosotras somos”. And the plural of “locutor” es?

Héctor: Locutores.

Catriona: “Nosotros somos locutores”. OK, so if I keep making generalizations as you suggested, I assume that for professions ending in a consonant I have to add the ending “-es” to make it plural, am I right?

Héctor: Yes, “locutores” is the plural of “locutor” and can be used…

Catriona: With mixed and man-only groups…

Héctor: Who’s the expert now?

Catriona: So for female groups it would be “locutoras”?

Héctor: Exactly.

Catriona: But I’m not only a broadcaster, I’m also a Spanish student. How do I say that?

Héctor: You say “estudiante de español”.

Catriona: But since I’m a girl, shouldn’t it be “estudianta”?

Héctor: In the case of occupations that end with letter “-e”, they are normally gender neutral already and they can be used with males and females. The plural is just formed by adding the letter “s”, “estudiantes”, and this can be used with male, female and mixed groups. Of course, throughout your learning process you may bump into some exceptions that you will have to learn by heart. But this rule can help you to jump right into it.

Catriona: So if I want to talk to a group and say “you are all Spanish students”, I say…

Héctor: Vosotros or vosotras sois estudiantes de español.

Catriona: So I add an “s” to make the plural and the conjugation for “vosotros” and “vosotras” is “sois”. And what about the more Latinamerican variation of “ustedes”?

Héctor: For “ustedes”, “ellos” and “ellas”, you use the same conjugation “son”.

Catriona: OK so “ustedes son estudiantes de español”.

And how do I say “how do you say” in Spanish?

Héctor: ¿Cómo se dice?

Catriona: “¿Cómo se dice?”. OK, and what about “artist”? I know that can be a tricky word sometimes. ¿Cómo se dice “artist”?

Héctor: Artista.

Catriona: And for males “artisto”?

Héctor: No, professions ending with “-a” follow the same principle as those ending with “-e”, so “artista” remains neutral.

Catriona: Well it's more straightforward than I have thought, so I would like to tell you about my closes friends and what they do for a living.

Héctor: Is it Tesauro o’clock?

Catriona: I think it is.

Héctor, I remember when I was at school, we had this aptitude test to do and they were supposed help us narrow down our career choices… Unfortunately, I had a strange list of things like butcher,  lumberjack, so maybe we'll take a look at some jobs my friends do. 

Héctor: I would like to see you as a butcher or lumberjack.

Catriona: Were the top choices for me, so I'm clearly making a mistake learning Spanish. But how, in Spanish do I say “what do you?” as in what do you do?

Héctor: Well, here we can make use of two full phrases. The first one can be: “¿en qué trabajas?” or “¿a qué te dedicas?”.  And you just answer by using “soy” and then your profession.

Catriona: ¿Cómo se dice “doctor”?

Héctor: Doctor.

Catriona: Doctor.

Héctor: How would it be in the feminine?

Catriona: Doctora.

Héctor: How about the plurals?

Catriona: “Doctores” or “doctoras”.

Héctor: Very good. 

Catriona: So maybe now, we can look at a few other professions. Some things that my friends do. So, ¿cómo se dice “lawyer”?

Héctor: Abogado.

Catriona: Is quite difficult to pronounce, Héctor. Maybe you can say it again?

Héctor: Abogado.

Catriona: Abogado.

Héctor: Just be careful with the “g”, “ga”. “Abogado”.

Catriona: Abogado.

Héctor: Very good. 

Catriona: and feminine would be? “Abogada”. 

Héctor: And the plurals?

Catriona: “Abogados, abogadas”. 

Héctor: Very good. 

Catriona: And how about “waiter”?

Héctor: OK waiter, here we have a little cultural difference a litlte, regional difference, and Spain normally you say “camarero” or  “camarera”.

Catriona: “Camarero, camarera”. 

Héctor: Exactly, and in other countries, Mexico, parts of Central America, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and some other countries in the South America they say “mesero”.  

Catriona: “Mesero” and “mesera”. 

Héctor: Exactly and the plurals?

Catriona: “Meseros” and “meseras”. 

Héctor: Very good. 

Catriona: Thank you. Well since we've done a few things now and looked at genders, maybe it's time for my quick quiz? 

Héctor: Yeah, definitely.

Héctor: So the quiz is going to be quite easy. I am going to read a phrase and you have to tell me the phrases, the same phrases but using a different pronoun so I am going to go give you the phrase and the pronoun that you have to use. 

Catriona: OK. 

Héctor: Is it clear?

Catriona: It is clear.

Héctor: OK, so let's get into it. The first sentence is: “él es doctor” and I want you to use the pronoun “ella”. 

Catriona: OK so that would be “ella es doctora”.

Héctor: Very good. OK, the second phrase would be “ella es abogada”.

Catriona: What pronoun should I use, Héctor?

Héctor: Él.

Catriona: “Él es abogado”.

Héctor: Very good. The third phrase is “nosotras somos estudiantes”, you have to use “nosotros”.

Catriona: That would be: “nosotros somos estudiantes”.

Héctor: Very good. The fourth phrase is “ustedes son artistas”. I want you to make two phrases here the first one with the “vosotras” and the second with “vosotros”.

Catriona: OK maybe a trick question here because would it not just be “vosotras and vosotros sois artistas”.

Héctor: Wow. Good and the last one “ellas son meseras” and I want you to use “ellos”.

Catriona: So, “ellos son meseros”.

Héctor: Very good. OK. Easy? Difficult?

Catriona: It was OK. It was fine. 

Héctor: OK. great, so now let's jump into a role-play, so this is quite a casual conversation that you might encounter when you're talking with one of your spanish-speaking colleagues or friends and we're just going to simulate a conversation where we are talking about friends and family. So let's just jump into it. 

Héctor: Buenas tardes, Catriona. ¿Cómo estás?

Catriona: Buenas tardes, sí muy bien gracias ¿y tú?

Héctor: Muy bien gracias. Catriona, ¿cómo se llama tu papá?

Catriona: Mi papá se llama Steward.

Héctor: ¿Y a qué se dedica?

Catriona: Es maestro de arte.

Héctor: ¿Y tu mamá?

Catriona: Él es artista.

Héctor: OK. ¿Y tu mamá?

Catriona: Y mi mamá se llama Marie y es ama de casa.

Héctor: OK y ¿tu mejor amigo? ¿Cómo se llama?

Catriona: Mi mejor amigo se llama Roberto.

Héctor: OK y ¿él a qué se dedica?

Catriona: Él es ingeniero.

Héctor: Ingeniero.

Catriona: Ingeniero.

Héctor: Very good. OK, y ¿tu mejor amiga?

Catriona: Mi mejor amiga se llama Joseline y es doctora. 

Héctor: OK. Wow. Very Good. I'm super impressed. Well done! How did you feel after this?

Catriona: Yeah, not too bad. It's fitting together a bit more making sense the genders or not as confusing as in the beginning of this episode.

Héctor: OK, good so just remember that these are general rules and the best thing to really really learn them is to put them intro practice as soon as you can. So I will really like to encourage all our listeners to put this intro practice. Try to send comments to your friends, family and everyone that speaks Spanish and even if they don't you can have them learn with you. But after that what would you like to learn in the next episode?

Catriona: I can second putting it into practice is definitely really helpful just to use it in everyday real-life situations. Next episode we could go further so my short conversation there could be a little bit filler, a little bit more enriched. Lot's of different friends, speak lots of languages so I think it would be quite nice something related to that topic and maybe to learn how to say where I am from, or where my friends are from.

Héctor: OK, languages and countries, my favorite topic.
Great, let’s do that!

Catriona: Wonderful.

Catriona: In the meantime, dear listeners, contact us via email at podcasting@babbel.com, remember to write A Zero to A Hero in the subject.

Héctor: We will read all your comments and suggestions. Remember also to subscribe to A Zero to A Hero wherever you get podcasts and please leave us a review!

Héctor & Catriona: Hasta luego, hasta la vista.