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Spanish Grammar 108 Articles

Definite and Indefinite Articles

The difference between definite articles and indefinite articles can be seen in the following two sentences:

Puedes darme el chocolate? (Can you give me the chocolate ? ) = specific
Puedes darme un chocolate? (Can you give me a chocolate? ) = any chocolate


The first sentence speaks of a particular (definite) chocolate. The second sentence speaks of any (indefinite) chocolate.

In Spanish, the definite article has 4 forms, depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.*

masculine singular: El
el libro (the book)

masculine plural: LOS
los libros (the books)

feminine singular: LA
la casa (the house)

feminine plural: LAS
las casas (the houses)

*neuter: LO
lo bonito (the beautiful)

The most important use of the article LO is when you use it to transform an adjective into a noun. For example:

Lo blanco me encanta (I love all white things).

All singular feminine nouns that start with a-, ha- or are accented, use the article EL. For example:

el agua (the water), el hada (the fairy), el arma (the firearm), el águila (the eagle)

This happens only when the nouns are singular because when they are plural the correct form is:

las aguas (the waters), las hadas (the fairies), las armas (firearms), las águilas (the eagles)

In Spanish two prepositions are combined with the definite article, rather than being used separately:

A+EL = AL
DE +EL = DEL

The definite article is always used before a surname when it is used with señor, señora, señorita. For example:

el señor lópez
la señora López
la señorita López

The days of the week use the definite articles too.

The indefinite article has 4 forms, depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.

Masculine singular: un

un lápiz (a pen)

Masculine plural: unos

unos lapices (some pens)

Feminine singular: una

una caja (a box )

Feminine plural: unas

unas cajas (some boxes )

If in the group there is at least one male member, the masculine plural article is used.

Singular feminine nouns follow the same rule as for the definite articles:

un agua (a water), una hada (a fairy), etc.

UNOS and UNAS in front of numbers means ‘around’, for example:

Tengo unos ocho libros de español. (I have around eight Spanish books.)

EXERCISE: 108 Articles | NEXT: 109 Ser – To Be

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Spanish Beginners’ Course

Grammar
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal Pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser - To Be
110 Possessive Pronouns


Exercises
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal Pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser - To Be
110 Estar - To Be

Vocabulary
101 Family
102 Clothes
103 Travel
104 Personal Information
105 City
106 Body
107 Professions
108 Descriptions
109 Shops
110 Home Contents

Listening practice
101 Possessive Adjectives
102 Gender of nouns
103 Adjectives
104 Plurals
105 Hay
106 Demonstratives
107 Personal pronouns
108 Articles
109 Ser
110 Estar
111 Possessive pronouns

Dialogues
101 Un día en la vida
102 En el aula de clase
103 En la escuela de idiomas
104 Al teléfono
105 Una tarde en la cocina
106 En un hotel
107 Conversación entre una pareja
108 Escuchando la radio
109 En la oficina de turismo
110 En la estación de trenes

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