From a verb a noun: -ción, -miento, -dad and kin
English 'measurement', 'observation' and 'achievement' have Spanish counterparts built from verbs by rule. Learn the endings and you stop looking such words up. For example: “La medición del ruido llevó tres días de observación” — The noise measurement took three days of observation. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English 'measurement', 'observation' and 'achievement' have Spanish counterparts built from verbs by rule. Learn the endings and you stop looking such words up.
-ción is the commonest, and always feminine: medir → la medición, observar → la observación. In the plural the written accent disappears: las observaciones.
-miento is masculine: conocer → el conocimiento, descubrir → el descubrimiento, crecer → el crecimiento.
-dad and -eza build a noun from an adjective rather than from a verb: regular → la regularidad, pobre → la pobreza. Both are feminine.
Table
| suffix | gender | built from | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ción | feminine | a verb | medir → la medición |
| -sión | feminine | a verb in -der, -tir | decidir → la decisión |
| -miento | masculine | a verb | descubrir → el descubrimiento |
| -dad | feminine | an adjective | regular → la regularidad |
| -eza | feminine | an adjective | pobre → la pobreza |
| no suffix | masculine | the verb's stem | aumentar → el aumento |
By example
- La medición del ruido llevó tres días de observaciónThe noise measurement took three days of observation
- El crecimiento de la ciudad se ve en el aumento del tráficoThe city's growth shows in the increase in traffic
- Tras la llegada del técnico, todo se arregló en diez minutosAfter the technician's arrival, everything got fixed in ten minutes
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
From a verb a noun: how does it work in Spanish?
English 'measurement', 'observation' and 'achievement' have Spanish counterparts built from verbs by rule. Learn the endings and you stop looking such words up.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“La medición del ruido llevó tres días de observación” — The noise measurement took three days of observation. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.