Question
21 Nov 2020
- English (UK)
- English (US)
-
Spanish (Spain)
Question about Spanish (Spain)
How can I tell when I have to say la or el? I am sick of getting marked wrong for putting el, they correct me to la, when el is perfectly acceptable to use for ‘the’ before some words, but not others. How can I tell which words la has to be used for?
How can I tell when I have to say la or el? I am sick of getting marked wrong for putting el, they correct me to la, when el is perfectly acceptable to use for ‘the’ before some words, but not others. How can I tell which words la has to be used for?
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- Spanish (Spain)
Usually, when the word ends with -a we use la, but not always. I think that the best thing you can do is memorize which ones go with la or el :(
- Spanish (Spain)
For example, la puerta (the door), la cuchara (the spoon) la guitarra (the guitar)... However, the word "agua" ends with an -A, but the article is "el".
- English (UK)
- English (US)
@Lucia_24 I will definitely take that to mind from now on! I know calle is la, so that’s an acception, I will try to learn more! Thanks for answering!
- Spanish (Spain)
Most of the words ending in “-a” are “la” and most of the words ending in “-o” are “el”.
However, as someone mentioned above, some words end in “-a” but we still use “el”. Most of the cases that’s just for pronunciation reasons.
Those words are almost always words that start with “-a” or “-ha” so they are till feminine words, but we use “el”.
You can, however, use both “un/a” or “algun/a” with these words.
For example:
El arma. Un/a arma
El aula. Algun/a aula
El hacha. Ningun/a hacha
- English (UK)
- English (US)
@Ivette_2 Ahhh thank you! I will definitely look out for this! Thank you <3
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