In Spanish, the noun ending reflects the number of people or things to which it refers. Singular nouns are used to talk about only one person or thing, whereas plural nouns refer to two or more people or things. The plural forms of nouns have different endings, as you will see below.
If a noun ends in a vowel, the plural is formed by simply adding an –s, for example:
 una mesa |
dos mesas |
Nouns that end in consonants are made plural by adding –es, for example:
| una pared |
cuatro paredes |
Nouns that end in –z are made plural by changing the –z to –c and then adding –es, for example:
| una luz |
dos luces |
| un pez |
tres peces  |
It is important to note that while some nouns refer to more than one person (and have thus a plural meaning), their form is singular. These are referred to as collective nouns. Two of the most important and commonly used examples of collective nouns are:
| la gente |
la familia |
La concordancia de género y número con sustantivos y adjetivos
In Spanish, adjectives used to modify nouns must agree with the noun in both gender and number. In other words, if the noun you are using is feminine singular, you will have to change the form of the adjective so that it too is feminine singular. Note that while the gender of noun is an inherent property, the gender of an adjective changes according to the noun.
Some adjectives have two endings, –o in the masculine or –a in the feminine (e.g. blanco/blanca). Others have only one ending, such as –inteligente, which does not change, and can be used to modify either masculine or feminine nouns.
The plurals of adjectives are formed in the same way that you just learned for nouns. In other words, by adding an –s if the word ends in a vowel or by adding –es if the word ends in a consonant, for example:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| femenino | la niña alta |
las niñas altas  |
| masculino | el niño alto  |
los niños altos |
| femenino | la mujer delgada |
las mujeres delgadas |
| masculino | el hombre delgado |
los hombres delgados |
| femenino | la muchacha inteligente |
las muchachas inteligentes |
| masculino | el muchacho inteligente |
los muchachos inteligentes |
| femenino | una persona joven |
unas personas jóvenes |
Remember that some nouns which refer to many people or things are actually singular:
| La familia es grande. |
Foto: Francisco Antunes CC BY 2.0 |
| La gente es agradable. |
