The articles
Articles in Spanish are important because they indicate the gender and number of the noun they refer to.
For example:
el libro (the book), la casa (the house),
los coches (the cars), las hojas (the leaves)
Definite articles
Used when talking about a specific topic or topics.
| El | Male, singular. número | termina en: -о, -e, s | Example: el cuento (a story), el bosque (a forest), el papel (a paper) |
| La | Female, singular | ending: -a, -ión, -d, -z | Example: la escuela (a school), la canción (a song), la ciudad (a city) |
| Los | Male, plural | ending: -os | Example: los cuentos (the stories), los bosques (the forests), los papeles (the papers) |
| Las | Female, plural | ending: -as | Example: las escuelas (the schools), las canciones (the songs), las ciudades (the cities) |
Look Exercises with the articles
Indefinite article
Used when talking about an object or objects in general terms.
Un - translates to "one" or "some"
| Un | Male, singular | ending: -о, s | Example: un cuento ([some] story), un bosque ([some] forest), un papel ([some] papers) |
| Una | Female, singular | ending: -a, -ión, -d, -z | Example: una escuela ([some] school), una canción ([some] song), una ciudad ([some] city) |
| Unos | Male, plural | ending: -os | Example: unos cuentos, unos bosques, unos papeles |
| Unas | Female, plural | ending: -as | Example: unas escuelas, unas canciones, unas ciudades |
In short, the article is an important attribute of nouns, since it helps us to know what gender and number a word has. With masculine nouns, the articles El/Los and Uno/Unos are written, for feminine nouns the articles La/Las and Una /Unas .
The gender of the noun is known, observing in which letter it ends.
There are exceptions when a feminine noun takes a masculine article, and these are:
when a noun starts with the letter a or ha, we write El
For example: el agua (water), el hambre (hunger) - feminine gender, masculine article
Next topic: Nouns in spanish
