Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Omission of the indefinite article with common verb + noun

combinations

The indefinite article is often omitted after verbs such as buscar‘to look

for’, emplear‘to use’, encontrar‘to find’, hay‘there is/are’, llevar‘to wear’,

tener ‘to have’:

Estamos buscando casa. We are looking for a house.

No llevaba abrigo. He wasn’t wearing a coat.

No tienen garaje. They don’t have a garage.

Exceptions to the above, as with other uses of the articles, include contexts

where the noun is qualified, and contexts where it is necessary to indicate

‘one’:

¿Hay una radio que funciona? Is there a radio that works?

Encontró una rueda pero no He found one wheel but not

la otra. the other.

The neuter article lo

This is used to refer to beliefs, concepts, thoughts, opinions or ideas that

have no gender.

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Definite and
indefinite
articles

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Use and omission of articles with more than one noun

Spanish is much less likely than English to omit an article before the

second or subsequent nouns in a list (especially when the nouns are

of different genders): Los CDs y las cintas no están aquí‘The CDs

and tapes are not here’.

Spanish usage approximates to English only when the sequence

consists of nouns of similar meaning that form part of a single idea:

El celo, dedicación y determinación de este estudiante son increíbles

‘The zeal, dedication and determination of this student are unbeliev-

able’.

The safest option for foreign learners is to use the appropriate article

with each noun.