Answer:1 The basic rules
In English, there is only one definite article: the. In Spanish, you have to choose between four definite articles: el, la, los and las. Which one you choose depends on the noun which follows.
In Spanish, all nouns (including words for things) are either masculine or feminine – this is called their gender. And just as in English they can also be either singular or plural. You must bear this in mind when deciding which Spanish word to use for the.
For more information on Nouns, see Nouns.
el is used before masculine singular nouns.
el niño the boy
el periódico the newspaper
la is used before feminine singular nouns.
la niña the girl
la revista the magazine
Tip
To help you speak and write correct Spanish, always learn the article or the gender together with the noun when learning vocabulary. A good dictionary will also give you this information.
los and las are used before plural nouns. los is used with masculine plural words, and las is used with feminine plural words.
los niños the boys
las niñas the girls
los periódicos the newspapers
las revistas the magazines
Note that you use el instead of la immediately before a feminine singular word beginning with a or ha when the stress falls on the beginning of the word. This is because la sounds wrong before the ‘a’ sound. But if you add an adjective in front of the noun, you use la instead, since the two ‘a’ sounds do not come next to each other.
el agua helada the icy water
el hacha afilada the sharp axe
la misma agua the same water
la mejor hacha the best axe
dont know if this helped
