Language/Spanish/Grammar/How-to-use-articles-in-spanish

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The Use of Articles in Spanish

The article points to the word which it follows in the sentence.

That word determines its gender and number.

It updates the meaning of the name, or on the contrary, generalizes it, giving rise to the following classification:

Determined or definite article[edit | edit source]

Select from all of its class, to a specific object and previously known by the participants in the conversation.

Examples:

  • No olvides las llaves.
  • El automóvil nos recogió al amanecer.
Singular Plural
Male el los
Female la las
Neutral lo

Article indeterminate or indefinite[edit | edit source]

Refers to beings or objects not identified, either because they are different within a group, example:

  • Necesito un lápiz (any lápiz)

Or because they are unknown to the speaker, example:

  • Me aguarda una sorpresa
Singular Plural
Masculino un unos
Femenino una unas

        

Singularities of the article against female names[edit | edit source]

The article matches its endings with the gender and number of the modified word (los niños, la muchacha, el caballo).However before the feminine nouns that begin with “a” o “ha” tonic (Accentuated), the article takes the form “el”

Example:

  • El águila – el hacha – el alba – el agua

For its part “una” becomes “un”

Example:

  • Un asa – un hambre

This rule does not affect the adjective (la amplia plaza), nor the noun that previously has a complement (la majestuosa águila).

In the same way exceptions are the proper names of women when they are used with article (el Alba (used as name)), as well as the letters of the alphabet (a, la hache)

Contractions al and del [edit | edit source]

Preceded by prepositions "a" or "de" the article determined "el" loses its first letter and forms a single word.

Examples:

  • He leído solo la portada del (de + el) periódico.
  • Trata de mirar al(a + el) punto más alto.

The union is avoided only when "el" is included in a proper name.

Examples:

  • Este es el clima característico de El Bierza.

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