How do I know the gender of a word?

In the long-term, the easiest way to remember the gender of a noun is to learn it at the same time as learning new vocabulary, this way it will only sound natural one way or the other. However, there are also a few tips that will help in knowing the gender of the word.For living things (people, animals, plants, etc.), if the word ends in -o then it is masculine, and if it ends in -a it is feminine. Example: el gato (the cat), la planta (the plant). Remember that this does not work for things that are not living (such as el problema).Another rule that applies to everything is that any noun that ends in -ción, -sión, -tud, -dad is always feminine, and a noun that ends in -ma is most likely masculine. We can remember this rule through the phrase "your -ma is your dad and your -dad is your mum" (i.e. that they are masculine and feminine respectively).