Nationalities in Spanish: uses and endings

This time we are going to talk about gentilicios in Spanish, in English known as gentilics or demonyms, in order to learn different nationalities in Spanish (nacionalidades en español). We are going to see how they are formed, their use and the most common endings.

First of all, a gentilicio or adjective of nationality is a word in Spanish used to express a relation to a geographical place, which may be a country, a city, a town, a state, a village, a continent or any other place.

Gentilicios in Spanish can function as adjectives or nouns.
It is an adjective because it describes a noun by telling the geographical origin of a person. For example:
El hombre colombiano habla por teléfono con un hombre argentino.

But a gentilicio is a noun when you refer to a person only using the gentilicio:
El colombiano habla por teléfono con un argentino.

In this post we will focus mainly on gentilicios that function as adjectives.

Using nationality adjectives to say where you are from

Let’s briefly summarize the two ways to say where you are from in Spanish.

The first one is using the adjective of nationality in Spanish with the verb ser.
Some examples:

Soy español.
Ella es italiana.
Nosotros somos canadienses.
Vosotros sois griegos.
Ellas son irlandesas.

The second way is using the verb ser + preposition de + name of the country, city, continent, etc. In this case the preposition de means “from”. Some examples:

Soy de España.
Ella es de Italia.
Nosotros somos de Canadá.
Vosotros sois de Grecia.
Ellas son de Irlanda.

In a nutshell, there are two options to say where are you from:

• SER + nationality (e.g. Soy estadounidense).
• SER + de + country, city, etc. (e.g. Soy de Estados Unidos).

Some general rules about nationalities in Spanish (gentilicios)

• Nationalities in Spanish are always written with lowercase, unlike in English (but names of countries are written with an initial capital letter like in English).
• Gentilicios or adjectives of nationality change according to the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun they describe. This happens with all the adjectives in Spanish.

Common endings for nationalities in Spanish

In Spanish, the adjectives of nationality are formed with the name of the country and a suffix or ending. There are common endings for different countries. However, there are no rules about what ending should be used for each country, so it is a good idea to try to learn as many different gentilicios or nationalities as possible and find some common patterns.

And although there are no general rules for the endings of different countries, there are rules about the gender and number for each ending. We will see this below.

To summarize the previous explanation with an example, imagine you want to write the nationalities of people from Russia. The country Russia is written Rusia in Spanish. We take the part rus- from the name of the country and add the correct endings, with their variations in gender and number. In this case the endings are o, -a, -os, -as. So, ruso would be the masculine singular and rusos the masculine plural; rusa the feminine singular and rusas the feminine plural. These endings are correct for this country and some others, but for other countries we will have to use other endings to write the correct demonyms.

There are many endings for nationalities in Spanish, but we will focus on the most common ones, and these are:

• consonant
• -és / esa
• -ense
• -ano / -ana
• -eno / -ena
• -eño / -eña
• -ino / -ina
• -eco / -eca
• -ego / -ega
• -aco / -aca
• -ita

Nationalities ending in consonant

Nationalities in Spanish that end in consonant are usually masculine, and form their feminine adding an –a at the end. For example: español → española.

The masculine form in plural add -es and the feminine form in plural add -as.
For example: españoles, españolas

As you can see, this kind of adjectives of nationality agree in gender and number with the noun.

See two examples in the following table:

As you have seen in the previous example, the accent over the –á– in alemán is dropped in the plural form (and also in the feminine forms). This is also the case with adjectives of nationality in Spanish ending in -és/esa, which we will see below.

Sentence examples:

• Este artista español ha ganado un premio.
• Los turistas alemanes se alojan en un hotel de Mallorca.

Nationalities ending in -o / -a

Nationalities ending in -o are usually masculine. To form the feminine, change the -o to an -a.

Sentence examples:

• Esta actriz rusa protagoniza una de las películas más vistas del año.
• Los ciudadanos europeos necesitan el pasaporte para entrar a ese país.

Nationalities ending in -és / esa

These are some examples of gentilicios in Spanish that end in -és / esa. These also agree in gender and number with the noun. See them:

As you have seen in the previous examples, the accent over the –é– is dropped in the plural form and also in the feminine.

Also note that the ending -és / esa in these nationalities in Spanish is common in some adjectives in English that end in –ish and –ese, like Scottish, Japanese…

Sentence examples:

• Pierre, mi amigo francés, vendrá a España el próximo mes.
• Conozco a una persona portuguesa.

Nationalities ending in -ense

Nationalities in Spanish that end with the suffix -ense agree in number with the noun, but the singular forms are the same in both masculine and feminine.

Sentence examples:

• Me encantan las películas de este actor canadiense.
• Mi amigo estadounidense trabaja en una empresa muy reconocida.

Nationalities ending in -ano / -ana

These are examples of gentilicios in Spanish that end in -ano (masculine) and -ana (feminine). The plural forms are -anos and -anas. There are a lot of nationalities with these suffixes. See the following examples:

Sentence examples:

• Este cocinero mexicano prepara unos platos deliciosos.
• El periodista peruano hizo una entrevista al futbolista italiano.
• Tu amigo australiano es muy amable.

Nationalities ending in -eno / -ena

The are gentilicios in Spanish that end in -eno (masculine) and -ena (feminine). The plural forms are -enos and -enas respectively. See the following examples:

Sentence examples:

• Mi profesora de español es chilena.
• Mis vecinos son eslovenos.

Nationalities ending in -eño / -eña

Gentilicios in Spanish that end in -eño (masculine) and -eña (feminine) are also common. The plural forms are -eños and -eñas. See these examples:

Sentence examples:

• Mis amigos brasileños son muy simpáticos.
• ¿Desde cuándo conoces a ese hombre hondureño?
• Mis tíos son hondureños, pero viven en Estados Unidos desde hace cinco años.

Nationalities ending in -eco / -eca

In Spanish there are some gentilicios that end in -eco (masculine) and -eca (feminine), with the plural forms -ecos and
-ecas respectively. See a few examples:

Sentence example:

• Me gusta mucho el nuevo disco de este cantante sueco.

Nationalities ending in -ego / -ega

See an example of a gentilicio that end in –ego (masculine) and –ega (feminine) with the plural forms of –egos and –egas respectively:

Sentence example:

• Los turistas griegos han visitado los lugares más interesantes de la ciudad.

Nationalities ending in -aco / -aca

In Spanish there are some gentilicios that end in -aco (masculine) and -aca (feminine), with the plural forms -acos and
-acas respectively. See some examples:

Sentence examples:

• El tenista austriaco no jugará el próximo partido.
• Estos estudiantes eslovacos son muy inteligentes.

Nationalities ending in -ino / -ina

There are some nationalities in Spanish that end in -ino (masculine) and -ina (feminine) with the plural forms -inos and
-inas respectively. See some examples:

Sentence examples:

• Mi padre es argelino, pero vive en Madrid desde hace dos años.
• La modelo argentina aparece en la portada de una revista de moda.

Nationalities ending in -ita

Nationalities in Spanish that end with the suffix -ita agree in number with the noun, but the singular forms are the same in both masculine and feminine.

Sentence examples:

• La mujer vietnamita lleva un sombrero llamado Nón Lá.
• Ese hombre vietnamita lleva un sombrero llamado Nón Lá.
• Estos estudiantes vietnamitas llevan un sombrero llamado Nón Lá.