Spanish: An Essential Grammar

onlyin cases in which the noun does not refer to particular persons or

things (especially in sentences that describe habitual actions):

Por aquí pasan trenes cada cinco minutos.

Trains pass through here every five minutes.

Jorge repara televisiones.

Jorge repairs televisions.

Note: The omission of unos/unasbefore a noun that is the subject of the verb is

uncommon. Compare English ‘Scientists have identified the gene that determines

eye colour’ with Spanish Unoscientíficos han identificado el gen que determina el

color de los ojos.

Unos/as replaced byalgunos/as

Unosand unasare sometimes replaced by the plural forms of the indefi-

nite adjective alguno‘some’:

Algunas madres se preocupan por eso.

Some mothers worry about that.

Depending on the context, unos/asmay also be replaced by ciertos/as

‘certain’, varios/as‘several’, unos/as, cuantos/as ‘a number of’, or unos/as,

pocos/as ‘a few’.

Omission of the indefinite article with nouns classifying people,

animals and things

Sometimes the indefinite article is not used before nouns that indicate

profession, occupation, or religious and political affiliation.

This occurs after verbs like ser ‘to be’, elegir ‘to elect’, hacerse‘to become’,

llamar‘to call’, nombrar‘to name’,calificar de ‘to describe as’:

Ella es doctora y él es amo de casa.

She is a doctor and he is a househusband.

Lo calificaron de dictador.

They described him as a dictator.

Exceptions to this are cases where the noun is qualified:

Es conservador y además un conservador intransigente.

He is a Conservative and moreover a diehard Conservative.

3.3.3.4

3.3.3.3

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

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

3

Definite and
indefinite
articles

38