In the reading exercise Espiritu Navideño, the woman is described as espíritu mágico de Navidad. How come, the ending is not changed to match the feminine "mujer"?
do masculine nouns ending in "u" have a feminine form?
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Shafagh K.Kwiziq community member
do masculine nouns ending in "u" have a feminine form?
This question relates to:Spanish interactive reading exercise "Espíritu navideño"
Reading A1, Celebrations & Important Dates, Family & Relationships, Listening or Seeing A1
Asked 3 years ago
Hola Shafagh
Exactly as J said, (thanks J for your thorough explanation), espíritu is a noun (el espíritu - the spirit), so there is no feminine form, just masculine. The adjective "mágico/mágica" is modifying espíritu (not mujer), therefore the agreement is in the masculine form: "espíritu mágico".
Saludos
mon k.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Adjectives change (agree) based on whether its *noun* is masculine or feminine. Sometimes, the subject of the sentence is also the noun of the adjective:
La mujer está mágica = The woman is magical
But sometimes, even if your subject of the sentence is feminine, you might have a noun attached to a noun that is masculine. El espíritu is a masculine noun, so:
La mujer tiene un espíritu mágico = The woman has a magical spirit.
El espíritu is a masculine noun, so its adjectives will always inflect in the masculine form. The gender of the subject of the sentence (la mujer) isn't relevant, so that's why it will never match "mujer" in this case. Hope this makes sense~
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