Articles



If speaking or writing fluently in a language is a tree, then Grammar forms the root to that tree. So without wasting more time on metaphors, I'm going to write about ARTICLES in this post!





Why Articles?

Articles are quite important in English as they provide certain information about the noun they precede. 

There are two types of articles; Definite and Indefinite Articles

1. Definite Article (the)

Used to indicate a noun that is definite or has been previously specified in the context:

  • Please open the windows.
  • I love the book you gave me.
  • The pen, the pencil, the book


2. Indefinite Article (a, an)

Used before singular nouns that are unspecified:

  • A book
  • An apple.

So, this was what we learned in high school.

In Spanish, it's completely a different concept. The articles change according to a particular gender that is assigned to that noun. All nouns are assigned a gender that is either masculine of feminine. 

Now we shall study about how Definite Articles are used:

Definite Article (The)
DEFINITE ARTICLES
Masculine
Feminine
Singular
El
La
Plural
Los
Las


Masculine Singular; El chico - The boy, Masculine Plural; Los chicos - The boys.

Feminine Singular; La chica - The girl, Feminine Plural; Las chicas - The girls. 


Now here's where people get confused. "How do we identify the gender of the noun?". For example let's take a dining table. It doesn't make sense to assign a gender to a TABLE but in Spanish, it does. In Spanish, it's feminine! - La mesa (may--saa), ;la silla (see-yyah) - the chair.


Remember this one easy concept to identify the gender:

All nouns ending with L/O/N/E/R/S are masculine.
All nouns ending with D/ION/Z/A are feminine.

An easy example here would be "The Paper". In Spanish this would be referred as "El Papel"/ "Los Papeles"


But again. There are certain exceptions in these as well. LONERS & DIONZA do not apply in ALL the nouns. The best way to remember those exceptions is to memorize them as you come across them. Eventually you get used to it. 

For example, El Lapiz means "The pencil" but the "z" in the end comes in DIONZA. Hence, there are many exceptions like these. 

Exceptions:

El aroma - The scent                                                                  
El clima - The climate                                                               
El dilema - The dilemma                                                           
El dia - The day
El idioma - The language
El mapa - The map
El planeta- The planet 
El problema - The problem

 La foto - The photo
La mano - The hand

Now we move on towards using indefinite articles!

Indefinite Articles (a)


INDEFINITE ARTICLES
Masculine
Feminine
Singular
Un
Una
Plural
Unos
Unas


Examples;
A boy - Un chico, Some boys - Unos chicos
A girl - Una chica, Some girls - Unas chicas



Bro tip: Keep a dictionary with you. I'd recommend Collins easy learning Spanish Dictionary. It's an orange coloured dictionary available on Amazon. Also download the Duolingo app to master this concept. 









Comments

  1. Unknown16 November 2017 at 05:45

    Thank you this article is really helpful for beginners

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ritvik16 November 2017 at 06:49

      You're most welcome! Incase if you come across any doubts, please put it so that I can put up a new post on it!!

      Delete
  2. Unknown16 November 2017 at 06:14

    Can you please help me out by giving and outline of an informal letter ?

    ReplyDelete

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