Informally, the definite article may be used with common nouns referring
to relatives (but never in direct address):
La abuela está sentada en el jardín.
Granny is sitting in the garden.
The definite article with names of geographical features and
locations
This includes unique features such as rivers, mountains, lakes, seas, oceans,
straits, currents, volcanoes and deserts:
el Tajo the Tagus el Teide Mt Teide
el golfo de the Bay of el mar the Adriatic Sea
Vizcaya Biscay Adriático
el Cotopaxi Mt Cotopaxi el Atacama the Atacama
Desert
We may also include el cielo‘heaven’, el infierno‘hell’, la Tierra‘Earth’
Streets and other forms of location are preceded by the definite article: la
calle Alcalá ‘Alcalá Street’, el Parque María Luisa‘María Luisa Park’.
Names of teams
The definite article (usually masculine) is used before the names of sports
teams:
el Betis el Sporting el Barça
Contexts in which omission of the definite article is
predominant
Names of countries
The majority of countries do not take the definite article, unless the name
is qualified by an adjective or adjectival phrase:
Millones de turistas visitan España.
Millions of tourists visit Spain.
Hay muchos vestigios de la España romana.
There are many remains from Roman Spain.
3.2.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.1.11
3.2.1.10
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1011
1
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
The definite
article
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