Spanish Lesson: Articles, Nouns, Adjectives

The definite article: English has only one definite article: "The" In Spanish the definite articles are: el, la, los, las:

"El" is used with masculine singular nouns; "la" is used with feminine singular nouns; "los" is used with masculine plural nouns; and "las" is used with feminine plural nouns.

Note:
You can tell the difference between "el" (article "the") and "él" (personal pronoun "he") because the second has an accent.

The indefinite article : In English the indefinite article is "a" or "an." Its Spanish counterparts are: "un" (masculine nouns) and "una" (feminine nouns):

In Spanish - unlike English - each noun is either masculine or feminine. Almost all nouns that end in o are masculine and almost all nouns that end in a are feminine. (But, notice that I said almost). In order to form the plural of nouns ending in o or a, an s is added.
Example:

Nouns ending in dad, tad, tud, umbre, ción, sión are feminine. The plural is formed by adding "es" to nouns ending in a consonant, and "s" to those ending in a vowel.
Example:

There are some nouns that are masculine but end in "a." To form the plural we have to add "s" (Don't forget that the article "el" goes with masculine singular nouns and the article "los" goes with masculine plural nouns, so the plural of el mapa is los mapas.)
Example:

Nouns ending in "e" tend to be masculine. To form the plural of nouns ending in "e" an "s" is added. (Don't forget that the article: "el" goes with masculine singular nouns and the article "los" goes with masculine plural nouns, so the plural of el parque is los parques.)

Here is a list of very common nouns that end in e but happen to be feminine:

First of all, Spanish adjectives have a different placement in the sentence than English adjectives: In English, it's The pretty house , whereas in Spanish, it's The house pretty = La casa bonita. In Spanish the noun comes before the adjective.

The Spanish adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify. This means that if the noun is feminine and singular the adjective has to be feminine and singular too. If the noun is feminine and plural the adjective has to be feminine and plural.
Example:

La mesa vieja (the old table)

Las mesas viejas (the old tables)

The same is true of masculine nouns. If the noun is masculine and singular the adjective has to be masculine and singular too. If the noun is masculine and plural the adjective has to be masculine and plural.
Example:

El carro sucio (the dirty car)

Los carros sucios (the dirty cars)

Most frequently used Spanish adjectives end in o (masculine) or a (feminine), according to the noun they modify.
Example:

alto, alta (tall)
ancho, ancha (wide)
amarillo, amarilla (yellow)
barato, barata (cheap)
blanco, blanca (white)
bonito, bonita (pretty)
bueno, buena (good)
caro, cara (expensive)
cómodo, cómoda (comfortable)
corto, corta (short)
delgado, delgada (thin)
duro, dura (hard)
estrecho, estrecha (narrow)
extranjero, extranjera (foreign)
feo, fea (ugly)
frío, fría (cold)
gordo, gorda (fat)
hermoso, hermosa (beautiful)
largo, larga (long)
limpio, limpia (clean)
loco, loca (crazy)
malo, mala (bad)
negro, negra (black)
rico, rica (rich)
sucio, sucia (dirty)
viejo, vieja (old)

However, there are many adjectives that end in e and some that end in consonants. These are called neutral adjectives, because they don't change form with masculine or feminine nouns. To form their plurals you need to add an s to the ones ending in e and es to the ones ending in a consonant.
Examples:

elegante (elegant)
excelente (excellent)
fuerte (strong)
grande (big)
humilde (humble)
importante (important)
inteligente (intelligent)
interesante (interesting)
pobre (poor)
triste (sad)
verde (green)

Spanish adjectives ending with consonants:

popular (popular)
azul (blue)
fácil (easy)
feliz (happy)
gris (gray)

Note: There are many rules about adjectives and many exceptions to those rules. The above is the most general and easiest aproach to Spanish adjectives. You can learn more in the future, but if you learn the lesson here well, you'll rarely have problems.

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