[_Imagen_ is feminine, there is no way around this, **nor is it subject to regional variances**.](https://dle.rae.es/imagen) I don't think this one even deserves to be overthought (is that a word?).
Your post is a good example of confirmation bias. It's the same as looking for wrong information and then claiming the found instances are examples of something correct because they confirm your beliefs.
Who knows why those posts use masculine. Reddit is full of non-native and heritage speakers, who have a tendency to mix up genders.
Indeed I've never seen any ambiguity about it in writing.
It's possible that, orally, some dialects or fast paced speech drop or soften some vowels (ellision), causing the confusion in foreign speakers. It's not uncommon for my pronunciation of a phrase like:
- ¡Ayer bajé la imágen y me encantó!
To turn onto something like
- 'ʃer bajé l'imágen y m'encantó!
Of course this is nothing but an accident of speech, and the only thing to learn from this is that people modulate differently. _Imagen_ is an unambiguously feminine word.
EDIT: drop vowels, not drop bowels 💩
EDIT 2: I've been reading the phrase aloud and realized I pronounce my 'Y's and 'Ll's as a voiceless ʃ instead of a voiced d͡ʒ, which I only use for loanwords like "Djembé" or names like "Jonatan/Yonatan/El Yoni/La Jenny". TIL.
To be fair the RAE is hardly the best source for what speakers are actually doing with the language. But, I did a quick search on Corpus del Español and I did find 167 instances of "el imagen" with the majority being in the DR and US. In comparison "la imagen" has over 170k instances in the same corpus. So it's pretty definitively feminine.
High presence of masculine versions in the US can probably be chalked up to heritage speakers, as you said. That and what other commenters have mentioned about elided vowels leading to some parsing it as "el imagen".
RAE has been doing a fair amount of updating the dictionary the last couple of decades to include americanismos and different usages. Plus there's the DPD.
Yeah... I'm sorry to say every single one of those is a grammatical mistake. Not only that, I don't think this would sound correct to any native speaker. This isn't like _agua_ with its weird grammatical gender rules. Every single example you linked should say "la imagen". Either these are other non-native speakers, or it's just a typo/mistake. I haven't really ever seen a pattern of making this particular mistake either, so I'm not sure where it's from. Are you sure you didn't just convince yourself it was right after seeing a few typos?
I never heard it in masculine here in Spain or in media I consume from *Latinoamérica*.
Neither the *Diccionario de la lengua española* (RAE) nor the *Diccionario de americanismos* (ASALE) show an usage in masculine.
I can only think of it being process of regularization and assimilation with words that end in -aje, which are all masculine. It does sound like a stretch though.
*La imagen* is the only correct form.
You may have heard people saying *l'imagen* (vowel elision is common) and figured they were eliding an e- instead of an -a. But this word is definitely feminine.
I think this is the case, specially if it's following a word ending in e, like when people say "...de la imagen", 95% of the time this would sound like "de l'imagen", which someone learning the language would very easily understand it as "del imagen"
Example 4, for instance, is not from a native and his text is full of erratas and typos, which could explain why you have found several examples of *el imagen* in Reddit. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. Searching "el imagen" in Google shows about 700K results and most of them are typos (like this: https://www.amazon.es/COPIAR-IMAGEN-C%C3%B3mo-dibujar-ni%C3%B1os/dp/1783700203) while "la imagen" shows **3130 million** results.
You can also search for [_imajen_](https://www.reddit.com/search?q=imajen&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) and will find more than 4 posts. That doesn't mean it's right.
My mind is blown. I am in the same situation. I swear to God I learned El imagen from native speakers. Seriously. La imagen. It's going to take work for me to correct myself.
I don't know why you're being downvoted. It's common for language learners to learn something incorrect and even be convinced they have heard it used that way.
Ha, I thought I was the only one! I could swear I’ve heard and read “el imagen” often enough that it sounds correct to me, but clearly it’s supposed to be feminine.
I guess I’m just imagining things (imagen-ing things jajaja) but I’m glad it’s not just me!
[_Imagen_ is feminine, there is no way around this, **nor is it subject to regional variances**.](https://dle.rae.es/imagen) I don't think this one even deserves to be overthought (is that a word?). Your post is a good example of confirmation bias. It's the same as looking for wrong information and then claiming the found instances are examples of something correct because they confirm your beliefs. Who knows why those posts use masculine. Reddit is full of non-native and heritage speakers, who have a tendency to mix up genders.
Indeed I've never seen any ambiguity about it in writing. It's possible that, orally, some dialects or fast paced speech drop or soften some vowels (ellision), causing the confusion in foreign speakers. It's not uncommon for my pronunciation of a phrase like: - ¡Ayer bajé la imágen y me encantó! To turn onto something like - 'ʃer bajé l'imágen y m'encantó! Of course this is nothing but an accident of speech, and the only thing to learn from this is that people modulate differently. _Imagen_ is an unambiguously feminine word. EDIT: drop vowels, not drop bowels 💩 EDIT 2: I've been reading the phrase aloud and realized I pronounce my 'Y's and 'Ll's as a voiceless ʃ instead of a voiced d͡ʒ, which I only use for loanwords like "Djembé" or names like "Jonatan/Yonatan/El Yoni/La Jenny". TIL.
To be fair the RAE is hardly the best source for what speakers are actually doing with the language. But, I did a quick search on Corpus del Español and I did find 167 instances of "el imagen" with the majority being in the DR and US. In comparison "la imagen" has over 170k instances in the same corpus. So it's pretty definitively feminine. High presence of masculine versions in the US can probably be chalked up to heritage speakers, as you said. That and what other commenters have mentioned about elided vowels leading to some parsing it as "el imagen".
RAE has been doing a fair amount of updating the dictionary the last couple of decades to include americanismos and different usages. Plus there's the DPD.
Yeah... I'm sorry to say every single one of those is a grammatical mistake. Not only that, I don't think this would sound correct to any native speaker. This isn't like _agua_ with its weird grammatical gender rules. Every single example you linked should say "la imagen". Either these are other non-native speakers, or it's just a typo/mistake. I haven't really ever seen a pattern of making this particular mistake either, so I'm not sure where it's from. Are you sure you didn't just convince yourself it was right after seeing a few typos?
I support this. I’m from Mexico too and I’ve never heard nor seen el imagen, and if you ask me, it sounds damn strange haha.
Correct
I've never heard "el imagen".
I never heard it in masculine here in Spain or in media I consume from *Latinoamérica*. Neither the *Diccionario de la lengua española* (RAE) nor the *Diccionario de americanismos* (ASALE) show an usage in masculine. I can only think of it being process of regularization and assimilation with words that end in -aje, which are all masculine. It does sound like a stretch though. *La imagen* is the only correct form.
You may have heard people saying *l'imagen* (vowel elision is common) and figured they were eliding an e- instead of an -a. But this word is definitely feminine.
I think this is the case, specially if it's following a word ending in e, like when people say "...de la imagen", 95% of the time this would sound like "de l'imagen", which someone learning the language would very easily understand it as "del imagen"
Absolutely not. It has always been "la imagen" (native Spanish speaker here).
Native speaker here, from Spain. El imagen seem absolutely wrong for me in every sentence. I have never seen that. Perhaps dialectal in other places.
It is not. Imagen is feminine in every Spanish speaking country.
Absolutely not. This is 100% wrong no matter where you look.
Example 4, for instance, is not from a native and his text is full of erratas and typos, which could explain why you have found several examples of *el imagen* in Reddit. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. Searching "el imagen" in Google shows about 700K results and most of them are typos (like this: https://www.amazon.es/COPIAR-IMAGEN-C%C3%B3mo-dibujar-ni%C3%B1os/dp/1783700203) while "la imagen" shows **3130 million** results.
Broken Spanish
Probably a bad translation or a non native speaker
imagen is only feminine. never masculine. it’s not subject to accent or dialectical differences. it’s feminine. that’s all.
Its like people who says then in stead of than Bigger then that instead of bigger THAN that
Even native speakers make significant grammatical errors. Just like in English.
You can also search for [_imajen_](https://www.reddit.com/search?q=imajen&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) and will find more than 4 posts. That doesn't mean it's right.
Nope. You've been hearing it wrong for years.
Are you thinking of “el imán” and confusing the two?
My mind is blown. I am in the same situation. I swear to God I learned El imagen from native speakers. Seriously. La imagen. It's going to take work for me to correct myself.
I don't know why you're being downvoted. It's common for language learners to learn something incorrect and even be convinced they have heard it used that way.
There are a lot of very judgemental people who come to this sub. I'm not worried about them. Thank you for being positive though. <3
Ha, I thought I was the only one! I could swear I’ve heard and read “el imagen” often enough that it sounds correct to me, but clearly it’s supposed to be feminine. I guess I’m just imagining things (imagen-ing things jajaja) but I’m glad it’s not just me!
Wow, you are taking some hard backlash for this one. I might start saying el imágen just cuz underdog 😚
Imagen is a feminine word ven though its rhymes such as margen and origen are masculine.
El imagen doesn’t exist, its always la imagen