Definite & Indefinite Articles

Definite Articles In English, the definite article is the word “the”. In Spanish, there are four words for “the”, depending on the noun’s gender and number.

Definite Articles el (masculine, singular) los (masculine, plural) la (feminine, singular) las (feminine, plural)

Examples el libro (the book) los cuadernos (the notebooks) la pluma (the pen) las calculadoras (the calculators)

Indefinite Articles In English, the indefinite articles are the words “a, an, some”. There are four indefinite articles in Spanish, depending on the noun’s gender and number.

Indefinite Articles un (masculine, singular) unos (masculine, plural) una (feminine, singular) unas (feminine, plural)

Examples un libro (a book) unos cuadernos (some notebooks) una pluma (a pen) unas calculadoras (some calculators)

Gender of Nouns All nouns in Spanish have gender, that is they are designated either masculine or feminine. The gender of a noun has nothing to do with what the noun is or who uses it. The only exception to this is words that represent a male (man, boy, father, etc.) are masculine and words that represent a female (girl, woman, mother, etc.) are feminine.

Gender of Nouns Usually, masculine nouns end with –o and feminine nouns end with –a. There are many exceptions to this rule, but for the majority of nouns this works. The only way to tell for sure if a noun is masculine or feminine is to look at the article that precedes it. If it has un, unos, el or los, it is masculine. If it has una, unas, la or las, it is feminine.

Gender cont. It is extremely important that when you memorize your vocabulary that you memorize the nouns with their articles!!

Number of Nouns To make a noun plural: If it ends in a vowel: add –s If it ends in a consonant: add –es

Examples un libro – dos libros una mochila – dos mochilas un reloj – dos relojes un cartel – dos carteles