Most of the time, Spanish nouns ending with the letter A are feminine. The exception is when the noun ends in MA, PA, or TA. If the noun has one of these endings, there is a good chance the word is masculine. Therefore, the following Spanish words require masculine articles:
el tema
el planeta
el mapa
As luck would have it MA PA TA can easily be shortened to MPT...which sounds like EMPTY......which can be associated with masculinity.
