Definite articles are used to talk about specific nouns. In Spanish, there are four definite articles: <em>el, la, los,</em> and <em>las</em> and they often all translate to the same word in English: <em>the</em>. Nouns are often accompanied by articles. So the use of them points out the gender (either masculine or feminine) and number (either singular or plural) of a noun. In the Table below is shown the four forms that Spanish definite articles take. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, if a feminine singular noun starts with a stressed <em>a </em>or <em>ha</em> sound then we use the masculine definite article rather than the feminine definite article.
Therefore:
<em>Las</em><em> muchachas colombianas son bonitas (Colombian girls are pretty)</em>