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Theme music plays. Title screen: "McGraw Hill Education logo. Changing Ways of Expressing Gender in Spanish." The title screen transitions to an outdoor location near a university campus, where Carlos, Carolina, Fer, and Victor are seated together at a table and wave at the viewers.
Carlos is a young, Hispanic man with a slight build, short dark hair, glasses, and an olive complexion. Carolina is a young, Hispanic woman with a medium build, long dark hair, and an olive complexion. Fer is a young, Hispanic person, thin, with a tuft of short brown hair with shaved sides, blue eyes, and fair skin. Victor is a young, Caucasian man with an athletic build, a close crew cut, who uses a wheel chair.
Carlos [addressing the viewers]: "Hi, everyone. I'm glad you could all be here today as we talk more about gender in Spanish. While nouns referring to objects and ideas have an unchanging grammatical gender, the gender of a noun or pronoun referring to a living being usually references the gender of that being. Today we'll review some of those points and also learn about some ways that people are changing how they express gender in Spanish."
Carolina [addressing the viewers]: "You'll remember that there are many basic words to refer to people that are distinct for men and women. The most obvious example is el hombre and la mujer."
Fer [addressing the viewers]: "For family relationships, an example is el yerno, son-in-law, and la nuera, daughter-in-law. Or for professions, el actor and la actriz."
As Carolina speaks, the following words appear onscreen:
As Fer provides more examples, the following words are added onscreen:
Victor [addressing Fer, Carlos, and Carolina]: "To talk about people, aren't there lots of nouns that just change the article and the ending, like el niño and la niña? Or for professions, el arquitecto or la arquitecta?"
Carlos [to Victor]: "Yes, Victor, the majority are those types. For professions, a lot of words that end in -r in the masculine form have an -a added in the feminine form, like el profesor and la profesora, or el productor and la productora."
Carolina [addressing Fer, Carlos, and Victor]: "Then there are words that end in an -e or in a consonant and only change their article, like el estudiante and la estudiante, or el and la joven. With professions, a common neutral ending is -ista, as in el dentista and la dentista, or el electricista and la electricista. The gender is expressed by the article, el or la."
As Victor speaks, the following words appear onscreen:
As Carlos provides more examples, the following words are added to the list onscreen:
As Carolina explains further, the following words appear onscreen:
Fer [addressing Carlos, Carolina, and Victor]: "There are also words whose grammatical gender does not change such as la persona or el individuo."
Carlos [to Fer]: "Good point, Fer. In those cases, adjectives agree with the gender of the word rather than the person.
[to Victor] "Like if I said Victor es una persona simpática y generosa."
Carolina, Fer, and Victor [in unison]: "Awwww."
As Fer continues to explain, the following words appear onscreen:
Carlos provides an example, and the following sentence appears onscreen:
Victor es una persona simpática y generosa. The letter a is called out in persona, simpática, and generosa.
Victor [addressing Carlos, Carolina, and Fer]: "So, when we talk about all of these people or professions in the plural, do we apply the same gender rules that we use with subject pronouns and other groups?"
Carolina [to Victor]: "Yes, the same rule applies. It's like when I say nosotros to talk about myself and Carlos. Or ellos to refer to Emily and Miguel."
Fer [addressing Carlos, Carolina, and Victor]: "This is true about most groups. While the feminine plural noun is used if all the members of the group are women, the masculine plural noun is the default for groups that are all men or mixed gender: los profesores, los compañeros de clase, mis amigos."
Victor: "That seems…" [Victor's voice trails off]
Carlos [attempting to finish Victor's sentence]: "Inaccurate? Unfair? You're not alone in thinking that, Vic. Actually, some people nowadays are trying to be more inclusive with their language."
Victor [to Carlos]: "How so?"
Carolina [addressing Carlos, Victor, and Fer]: "One way is by saying both the feminine and masculine groups, as in: los estudiantes y las estudiantes; los profesores y las profesoras, nosotros y nosotras. A government official in Mexico might talk about los mexicanos y las mexicanas."
Victor poses a question and Carolina proceeds to answer. The following text is displayed onscreen:
The ending -os in nosotros and ellos is called out.
As Fer speaks, the following text appears onscreen:
As Carolina speaks again, the following sentences appear onscreen:
The words los, las, the ending -os in nosotros and mexicanos, and the ending -as in nosotras and mexicanas are called out.
Fer: "Some people use abbreviations in informal writing, like emails and text messages. They might write nosotros with an ‘at symbol’ to represent both the -o and the -a at the same time. And other people use an ‘x’ in place of the vowel or in place of the whole ending."
Victor: "Oh, that's so cool. Are there other ways to be inclusive?"
Fer: "Well, just like the plural words that end in -es and don't indicate gender, such as estudiantes, some people will change an -o ending to an -e. For example, in casual conversation or informal correspondence, I might refer to ‘everyone’ as todes."
Victor: "Whoa, so interesting!"
Carlos [to Victor]: "You're right, Victor.
[addressing the viewers] "And it's kind of beautiful that, despite the official grammar rules, people are changing the language themselves to be more inclusive. But not everyone is in favor of these kinds of changes. Some people will insist that saying todos already includes women, so therefore, grammatically speaking, saying todos y todas is repetitive. And they'd probably say that todes is just wrong."
As Fer speaks, the words nosotros and nosotras appear onscreen. Both the words disappear, forming a new word nosotr@s, where the letter a is replaced with the ‘at symbol’ and is called out.
The ‘at symbol’ is then replaced with the letter x to form the word nosotrxs. The letter x is called out. Next, the ending -s in nosotrxs disappears and the word nosotrx remains onscreen.
As Fer speaks again, the word todes appears onscreen, and the letter e is called out.
Carolina [addressing the viewers]: "At the same time, the so-called repetitive style is being used more in official discourse, and the -e ending is getting increasingly popular in casual language. But it's hard to know if Spanish speakers will continue using either of these strategies or invent new ones."
Victor [to Carolina]: "Do you think I would offend people by using inclusive language?"
Carolina [to Victor]: "Well you'd probably get it wrong on a test if you wrote todes, but in other situations it might even be appreciated."
Carlos [to viewers]: "I'd say: when in doubt, ask the person or people you're talking to, be it your instructor or your Spanish-speaking friends or coworkers."
Fer [addressing the viewers]: "Spanish is always changing and evolving. We can see examples of this in words like jefe and presidente, whose newer adaptations la jefa and la presidenta became widely used over time, to emphasize that women carry out these roles. So it's definitely possible that inclusive language will become more widely accepted in time. ¡Ya veremos!"
As Fer speaks, the following phrases appear onscreen:
The onscreen text refreshes to show the phrases updated as follows:
The word la and the ending -a in jefa and presidenta are called out.
The scene transitions to the closing title screen: McGraw Hill logo. Because learning changes everything.® All materials © 2021 McGraw Hill.
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