Nouns (sustantivos) like table or chair, which are genderless in English, are either masculine or feminine in Spanish. The definite article has four forms.
As a general rule, most nouns ending in o are masculine and those ending in a are feminine, but there are exceptions.
a. Feminine nouns such as agua, álgebra, and álguila, nouns with a stressed a, are preceded by the masculine el instead of the feminine la in order to avoid the ackward sound of la ... a.
b. Nouns ending in -ie, -ad, and -ud are always feminine.
Ex: la bondad, la libertad, la juventud, la universidad, la serie
c. Nouns ending in -ción , -sion, and -umbre are always feminine.
Ex: la acción (action), la revolución (revolution), la cumbre (peak), la misión (mission)
d. Letters of the alphabet, sicknesses, islands and provinces are feminine.
Ex: la fiebre (fever), la Isla de Pinos, (the Isle of Pines (Cuba)), la hache (h)
e. Nouns referring to persons and animals can be masculine or feminine.
el novio	boyfriend, bridegroom	la novia	girlfriend, bride
el primo	cousin	la prima	cousin
el señor	gentleman, Mr.	la señora	lady, Mrs.
el caballo	horse	la yegua	mare

f. Nouns referring to a person's profession or social position often end in -ista, -ante, or -ente. These nouns do not change according to gender. The difference in gender is indicated by the masculine or feminine definite article.
el estudiante	la estudiante	student
el artista	la artista	artist, performer
el poéta	la poéta	poet
el orden	la orden	order
g. Nouns referring to numbers, days of the week, musical notes, cardinal points, compound words, names of trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, straits, and seas are masculine as well as nouns ending in -aje.
Ex: el garaje, el naranjo, el siete, el norte, el lunes, el paraguas, el Canal de Panamá, el Caribe.
h. Some nouns that end in -ma are masculine.
Ex: el tema (subject), el idioma (language), el problema (problem).

 

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Jaime El Sabio