Spanish Definite Article

Spanish Definitive Article

The Spanish definite article can be difficult to get a grasp of. However, with this lesson, you will understand it more than ever. Let us begin shall we? In English, we have a word that we use to describe everything. That word is "the". Now in Spanish, they also have an equivalent of "the" but there are four of them. They include "el, la, los, and las".

The definite article is similar to the Spanish adjectives in that you change it according to the gender and how many. You would use the word "el" for a single masculine object. You would use the world "la" for a single feminine object. You would use "los" for a plural masculine object. Can you guess what the last one might be? Last but not least, you would use "las" for a plural feminine object. Do you think this is helpful so far? Wait until you see the full version. Click the picture of the box on the right hand side of this page for more information.

For the most part, you will use the Spanish definite article whenever you use the word "the" in English. There are a few minor exceptions but you do not have to worry about this right now. Focus on using the correct article then worry about those other things later. Did you know that Spanish also uses their "the" at times when our English would not? That is correct folks, this is the tricky part. So bear with me here as we go through a couple of the instances they use the definite article.

The Spanish language uses their definite article with abstract nouns, titles of people such as a CEO or a president. It is also used before any verbs that are used as subjects. It is used with nouns that are joined by the word "and". English doesn't consider this to be imperative but the Spanish language requires it. So of course we have to comply don't we? It is used before any name of a language. For example, if we were to say English, it would read as El inglés.

So we know when to use the Spanish definite article but how about when we do not use it? Well we know that when you say "the" in English, you can most likely use the correct form of "the" in Spanish. There are however, sometimes when you do not want to use it. Let us take a look at them.

You do not want to use the definite article on any type of phrase that doesn't follow a logical pattern. Common expressions and sayings are an example of this. You most definitely do not want to use it before any kind of ordinal number. An ordinal number is something like King Henry the Eighth and so on. Lastly, you do not want to use the definite article before some kind of proverbs. Indefinite Articles>>