In Spanish, the accent indicates the syllable which is stressed when spoken.

Spanish nouns, all Spanish nouns, come in masculine and feminine varieties. The gender of a noun should be memorized with the noun, as it becomes important when using adjectives. However, there are some clues to make memorization easier.

Nouns that end in -o are usually masculine. Likewise, those that end in -a are usually feminine. Add to that, nouns ending in -dad, -tad, -ción, -sión are feminine.

The exceptions to these rules must be memorized by brute force. In the vocabularies, the definite article is always included. It helps to recite the definite article with the word as you memorize it.
almuerzo: masculine (means lunch)
taza: feminine (means cup)
pollo: masculine (means chicken)
liquidación: feminine (means sale)

When dealing with nouns that have denote people, such as the spouse or the Chilean, the noun may have a masculine and feminine form or it may not.
el chileano: the (male) Chilean
la chileana: the (female) Chilean
el esposo: the husband
la esposa: the wife
el estudiante: the (male) student
la estudiante: the (female) student (no change)

Now try the following words:

The definite article in English is the word the. It is used whe refering specific objects, such as the car or my car, as opposed to a class of objects such as a blue car. The indefinite object in Spanish is el for masculine singular nouns, la for feminine singular nouns, los for masculine plural nouns, and las for feminine plural nouns.

The indefinite article in English is a, an, or some. It is used for refering to classes of objects while making no reference to any specific object of that class. For example, some fast cars, or a big house. In Spanish the indefinite articles are un for masculine singular nouns, una for feminine singular nouns, unos for masculine plural nouns, and unas for feminine plural nouns.
el, la: the, masc. and fem. sing.
los, las: the, masc. and fem. pl.
un, una: a or an, masc. and fem. sing.
unos, unas: some, masc. and fem. pl.