In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine, even when they don’t refer to people. Usually, nouns that end in o (like niño) are masculine, and nouns that end in a (like niña) are feminine.
In English, verb forms usually don’t change (for example, I walk and we walk), but there are exceptions. For example, we say I am, but you are, and she is. In Spanish, all verbs change depending on whether the person is I, you, she, etc.
subject | ser to be |
---|---|
yo I |
soy I am |
tú you (informal) |
eres you are |
él he |
es he is |
ella she |
es she is |
Notice that él and ella always have the same verb form, so we’ll group them together from now on.