Nouns have a gender Usually, if the nouns last vowel is an a, it would be considered a female noun You would use la if it is singular You would use las if it is plural If the nouns last vowel is not an a, it is likely to be a male noun You would use el if it is singular You would use los if it is plural

In English, the definite article is the word "the" regardless of whether the noun it introduces is singular or plural. In Spanish, the definite article has 4 forms, depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. el masculine singular la feminine singular los masculine plural las feminine plural

el gato the male cat los gatos the male cats la gata the female cat las gatas the female cats Note: The masculine plural definite and indefinite articles (los, unos) are also used to indicate a group of mixed sex. Thus, "los gatos" could refer to a group of 10 male cats, or it could refer to a group of 9 female cats and one male cat.

el chico – the boy la chica – the girl el hombre – the man la mujer – the woman el armario = the locker el bolígrafo = the pen

el cuaderno = the notebook el diccionario = the dictionary el lápiz = the pencil el libro = the book el marcador = the marker el pupitre = the desk

el reloj = the clock (watch) la mesa = the table la calculadora – the calculator la carpeta = the folder la mochila = the bookbag la regla = the ruler la bandera = the flag