In order to answer the question asked in the title of this lesson, the first thing we need to know is how to say "sugar" in Spanish. Do you know how to say "sugar" in Spanish? Let's listen to the answer in the following clip:

Con media taza de azúcar

With half a cup of sugar

Caption 25, Ana Carolina - Ponche navideño

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Now that we know how to say "sugar" in Spanish, let's go back to our initial question: Is the word for "sugar" masculine or feminine in Spanish? Do you say el azúcar or la azúcar? Let's find out.

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Azúcar: An Ambiguous Noun in Spanish

When it comes to gender, the word azúcar is an ambiguous Spanish noun, which means that it can be either masculine or feminine. Both are valid! Let's look at a couple of examples:

Masculine

Los ingredientes principales de la torta son la piña y el azúcar moreno de caña.

The main ingredients of the cake are pineapple and brown cane sugar.

Notice how, in the example above, the word azúcar is preceded by the masculine article el and followed by the masculine adjective moreno.

Feminine

La industria de la azúcar morena juega un papel muy importante en este país.

The brown sugar industry plays a very important role in this country.

In this case, the word azúcar is preceded by the feminine article la and followed by the feminine adjective morena.

Taking this ambiguity into account, it should be mentioned that if there isn't any adjective next to the word azúcar, it is more often employed as a masculine noun. Let's take a look: 

Lía, por favor, cuando yo te diga

Lia, please, when I tell you,

me echas el azúcar poco a poco. -Sí.

add the sugar for me little by little. -OK.

Captions 22-23, Cleer y Lía - El día de la madre

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However, if there is an adjective next to the word, the feminine form tends to prevail, as we can see in the following clip from our friend María Fernanda:

Una vez mezclado, colocamos dos cucharadas de azúcar,

Once mixed, we add two tablespoons of sugar,

blanca o morena; en este caso yo conseguí azúcar morena.

white or brown; in this case I got brown sugar.

Captions 30-32, María Fernanda - Mascarilla de aguacate

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Ambiguous Nouns in Spanish

Azúcar isn't the only word in Spanish that is ambiguous in terms of gender. In fact, there are several additional ambiguous Spanish nouns, such as the following:

el armazón / la armazón (the frame)

el cochambre / la cochambre (the grime)

el enzima / la enzima (the enzyme)

el mar / la mar (the sea)

el vodka / la vodka (the vodka)

Unlike nouns that change meaning with gender, the unusual thing about ambiguous nouns is that they maintain the same meaning in both their masculine and feminine forms. In other words, both el azúcar and la azúcar mean "sugar."

With this final explanation, we've reached the end of this lesson. We hope that you've learned something new today, and don't forget to send us your questions and comments.

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