Spanish Articles 101: How to say The and A in Spanish (2024)

How do you say thein Spanish? And what’s Spanish for a?

Spanish articlesmay not be quite as simple as in English, but the rules are pretty straightforward. Let’s just dig in and you’ll see what we mean!

Definite articles: “The” in Spanish

The Spanish theis actually quite similar to its English counterpart. This is called the definite article,because it identifies a particularthing, not just athing. So what are the definite articles in Spanish?

In fact, we have four options for thein Spanish, depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural. Here are the four words for thein Spanish, corresponding to the noun’s gender and number:

How can you know the gender of a Spanish noun? In fact, looking at the Spanish article is the easiest way to tell if a noun is masculine or feminine, which is why we always include a Spanish article before nouns in our vocab posts.

Another common clue is that masculinewords often end in -o, while femininewords often end in -a. And like in English, Spanish plural nounsusually end in -s.

So now let’s see some examples of masculineand femininenouns, in singularand plural, with their corresponding Spanish definite articles. For each one, they all translate into English as the:

• masculine singular: elcarro– thecar
• feminine singular: lamesa– thetable
• masculine plural: loscarros– thecars
• feminine plural: lasmesas– thetables

A common beginner mistake is to forget to use the plural article when the noun is plural. It’s not “lamesas,” for example; it needs to be “lasmesas.”

Before we have you give it a try, here are a few other examples of the Spanish thein both singular and plural. We’re not translating these words, but we hope you still understand what they each mean!

• elteléfono/ losteléfonos
• elaeropuerto/ losaeropuertos
• larosa/ lasrosas
• lahamburguesa/ lashamburguesas

Spanish definite article practice

Now it’s your turn. Even if you don’t know what the words mean, you should be ready to know which form of Spanish theto use. We’ve highlighted the words’ endings to make it easier. What are the definite articles in Spanishfor each one: el, la, los, las?

• ___ castillo
• ___ hoja
• ___ radio
• ___ cartas
• ___ murciélago
• ___ hipopótamos
• ___ jirafas
• ___ esternocleidomastoideo

For more practice learning vocab, get free access to our Spanish flashcards.

Contractions with the prepositions A and De

When we simply mention the noun in Spanish, we use the definite articles as we’ve just seen above. However, if a masculine singular noun comes after the Spanish prepositions aor de, we need to form contractionswith elto create aland del.

[the prepositiona] + [the definite article el] = al

[the preposition de] + [the definite article el] = del

These contractions are obligatory whenever we have a elor de el. We don’t contract any of the other articles. See this with a few examples:

• Voy albanco. – I’m going to thebank.
• Voy a lafarmacia. – I’m going to thepharmacy.
• Vengo delmuseo. – I’m coming from themuseum.
• Vengo de laplaza. – I’m coming from thetown square.

For a lot more detail on using aland delin Spanish, check out our full lesson on Spanish contractions. We also have a dedicated post with in-depth explanations of De in Spanish.

Lo in Spanish: The neutral definite article

In addition to the four Spanish definite articleswe saw above (el, la, los, las), there’s one more special case that we should mention. Lois considered the neutral definite articlein Spanish, since it’s not associated with any gendered nouns.

So when do we use loin Spanish? There are actually multiple grammatical uses for this little word, so we’ll point you to our full post where we explain five scenarios to use the Spanish Lo. In today’s post, we’ll just introduce when we use loas a definite article.

The vital detail is that the definite article lois not used on nouns. Instead, we use loas an article before adjectivesto talk about a thing that has that quality. In this case we always use lofollowed by the masculine singular formof the Spanish adjective. This is best explained through some examples:

• lobonito – thenice thing – thenice one
• lomejor – thebest part – thebetter one
• lodifícil – thedifficult thing
• loimportante – theimportant thing

The exception: Some feminine nouns take El

For the most part, we can rely on the Spanish articles to follow the rules we saw above, where they always match the gender and number of the nounthey describe. However, there’s one set of exceptions for singular feminine nounsthat we should mention here.

When a feminine noun starts with a, á, or ha, we need to use the masculine article elrather than la. This is strictly for ease in pronunciationwhen the word’s first syllable is emphasized, to avoid repeating the back-to-back a soundswith la a-.

• elalma – thesoul
• elarma – theweapon

In plural we still use the article las, since this no longer clashes in the pronunciation of las a-.

• elalma / lasalmas
• elarma / lasarmas

Even if we use elin these cases, the noun is still feminine, so any adjectives or pronounswill still need to respect its feminine gender.

• Elagua está fríacuando labebo. – Thewater is coldwhen I drink it.

To make it even more complicated, some feminine words that start with an a soundhave their emphasis on later syllables, in which case we still use laas their article!

• lahamaca – thehammock
• laharina – theflour

We’re getting into fairly advanced grammarat this point, so don’t worry too much about these exceptionsif you’re just starting out with learning the Spanish articles. If you’re keen though, check out our in-depth posts on Spanish accentsand syllabification rules!

Indefinite articles: “A” and “An” in Spanish

Again, this compares directly with what you use in English: aor an. These are known in both languages as indefinite articles, since we use them to refer to a non-specific thing, as opposed to a particular one.

You’re being way less specific if you say a dogbit you, for example, as opposed to getting bitten by the dog.

In plural, you generally use somein English as the indefinite article, whereas in Spanish we just add an -sto our indefinite articles to make them plural. The same concept applies, though, for example getting chased by some dogsrather than by the dogs.

So what are the indefinite articles in Spanish? They follow the same principle as the definite articles, where they need to respect the gender and numberof the nouns they describe. Here are the four options for ain Spanish, with the plural versions usually translating into English as some.

Now let’s use the same nouns from above to demonstrate the indefinite articlesSpanish uses:

• masculine singular: uncarro– acar
• feminine singular: lamesa– atable
• masculine plural: unoscarros– somecars
• feminine plural: unasmesas– sometables

Before we wrap up, let’s see a few more examples of the four Spanish indefinite articles in action: un, una, unos, unas.

Just remember that how to use articles in Spanishall hinges on the gender and number of the noun. This contrasts with English, where your singular indefinite article depends on whether the noun begins with a vowel or a consonant. Thus, unand unacan both be a in Spanish or anin Spanish.

Likewise, in English you use someto describe unspecified plural nouns. So both unosand unasare equivalent to somein Spanish.

• unperro/ unosperros– adog / somedogs
• unaeropuerto/ unosaeropuertos– anairport / someairports
• unacasa/ unascasas– ahouse / somehouses
• unaservilleta/ unasservilletas– atowel / sometowels

There is no neutral indefinite articlein Spanish equivalent to lothat we saw above.

The exceptionwe saw above with feminine nouns that take elas their singular definite article also applies to their singular indefinite articles.

• unalma / unasalmas
• unarma / unasarmas

Conclusion: Definite and indefinite articles in Spanish

We went through a fundamental grammar lesson in today’s post, learning how to say aand thein Spanish.

Known collectively as the Spanish articles, we saw how there are actually nine different wordsin Spanish, compared with just fourin English. These can either be definite articles, corresponding with the English the, or indefinite articles, corresponding with the English a, an, and some.

In Spanish, articles need to match the gender and number of the nounsthey describe, so there’s a masculine, feminine, singular, and pluralversion for each one. There’s also a neutral version of the definite article, lo, which can be used with adjectives.

To sum up, we’ll leave you with the two tables showing the eight Spanish definite and indefinite articleswe use with nouns. Happy learning!