4 The articles
4.1 Definite article
The definite article forms of Spanish (corresponding to English ‘the’) are:
The article agrees with its noun in number and gender:
el árbol (m. sg.) ‘the tree’
el policía (m. sg.) ‘the policeman’
la carta (f. sg.) ‘the letter’
la mano (f. sg.) ‘the hand’
los muchachos (m. pl.) ‘the boys’
las manifestaciones (f. pl.) ‘the demonstrations’
Before singular feminine nouns beginning with stressed a- or ha-, el is used instead of
la:
el agua (f. sg.) ‘water’
el hambre (f. sg.) ‘hunger’
But:
las armas (f. pl.) ‘arms’, ‘weapons’
NOTE These nouns remain feminine, and other agreements are made accordingly:
el agua fría
‘cold water’
If the article does not directly precede the noun, then it reverts to la:
la siempre aborrecida hambre
‘ever-loathed hunger’
There are also some exceptions to this rule, most notably la a‘the letter “a”’ and La Haya‘The
Hague’.
See also 2.7–2.8 for the ‘neuter’ article lo, which is not used with nouns.
Singular Plural
Masculine el los
Feminine la las
