DEFINITE ARTICLES: el, la, los, las

MASCULINE OR FEMININE?
SINGULAR OR PLURAL?
AIM:
•To learn how to apply grammar rules to definite articles and
nouns in Spanish.
 NOUNS
• In Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine.
• There are no hard and fast rules about the gender of a noun so
you just have to learn the gender as you go along.
• Some rules can guide you to an extent.
• If a word ends in –a, it is normally feminine.
• If a word ends in -o, it is usually masculine.
• It is always best to check in a dictionary first and see whether it
says NM (masculine) or NF (feminine).
• Try www.wordreference.com if you prefer to use online resources.
• This information is vitally important when learning Spanish and
you will see why later on.
Definite Articles el la
los las
The definite article is the word the.
Why is it called the definite article?
Think of this example:

Have you eaten a cake? Yes, I have eaten a cake.

The cake is not specific.

Have you eaten the cake? Yes, I have eaten the cake.
There is definitely only one cake in this situation.

•Remember that in Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine and can also be
singular (just one) or plural (more than one). This information tells you which
definite article you need to use so remember to check in a dictionary if you are
not sure.
 DEFINITE ARTICLES: el, la, los, las
MASCULINE OR FEMININE?
SINGULAR OR PLURAL?
AIM:
•To learn how to apply grammar rules to definite articles and
nouns in Spanish.
 DEFINITE ARTICLE
 
THE

MASCULINE
SINGULAR El
FEMININE
SINGULAR La
MASCULINE
PLURAL Los
FEMININE
PLURAL Las
Now you will see a demonstration
of how to apply this knowledge in
some examples.

When looking up the gender of

nouns, you can either use a
paper dictionary or an online
dictionary like
www.wordreference.com
 Look at the following sentences and look up the noun in the dictionary.
Is it masculine (m) or feminine (f)?
Singular (s) or plural (p)?
Choose the correct definite article (the): 1, 2, 3 or 4.

1s 2s 3p 4p
a.(El / La / Los / Las) garaje es enorme. a. 1: ms
b.(El / La / Los / Las) deportes son divertidos. b. 3: mp
c.(El / La / Los / Las) bicicleta está rota. c. 2: fs
d.(El / La / Los / Las) parque es bonito. d. 1: ms
e.(El / La / Los / Las) ciencias son interesantes. e. 4: fp
f.(El / La / Los / Las) aviones son rápidos. f. 3: mp
g.(El / La / Los / Las) pan es delicioso. g. 1: ms
h.(El / La / Los / Las) escuela está cerrada. h. 2: fs
Find out the gender of the nouns and then write the correct definite
article (el / la / los / las) in the blank provided.
El
a. ____ barco es impresionante.
El
La chica es baja.
b. ____
Los trenes son rápidos.
c. ____ La
La biblioteca está abierta.
d. ____
El inglés es difícil.
e. ____ Los
El libro es interesante.
f. ____
La casa es elegante.
g. ____ Las
Las patatas fritas son malas para la salud.
h. ____