Definite Article in Spanish Made Easier

What are definite articles?

So now we have learned that you have to choose between four definite articles: el, la, Los, and Las.
You select the correct definite article depending on the noun that it follows that can be either masculine or feminine (i.e. their gender)

Tip:

In English, there is only one definite article: the.
In English, they can also be either singular or plural.

What we already know?

In order to know what definite articles are, we need to do a quick review:

Nouns are people, places and things.
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They have a gender and match in number or quantities. They can either be feminine or masculine. Usually nouns that end in -o are masculine and ones that end in -a are feminine. It’s not an absolute rule but a good rule to know.

Note: Nouns having gender is not something that is used in English, but don’t panic, we got this! Let’s review some examples as a refresher!

Definite Articles video lesson

Example(s):

Noun	Feminine or Masculine	Singular or Plural
mesa	mesa is feminine	mesa is singular
mesas	mesas is feminine	mesas is plural
carro	carro is masculine	carro is singular
carros	carros is masculine	carros is plural

What about nouns that do not end in -o or -a?

Noun	Feminine or Masculine	Singular or Plural
estudiante	Can be either feminine or masculine	estudiante is singular
estudiantes	Can be either feminine or masculine	estudiantes is plural
corazon		corazon is singular
corazones		corazones is plural

Tip: These will just need to be memorized, there’s no ‘rule’ for these!

DEEP DIVE! What is the focus from this lesson?

We are going to learn how to say the feminine singular and feminine plural and the masculine singular and masculine plural.

Let’s look at this example together:

Me gusta _____ carro.

Me	gusta	_____	carro.
			carro is singular and masculine

Me	gusta	el	carro.
		el is the definite article	carro is singular and masculine

Tip: Él (he) vs el (the) (check out the subject pronoun video)

Me gustan _____ carros.

Me	gustan	_____	carro.
			carro is singular and masculine

Me	gustan	los	carros.
		los is the definite article	carros is plural and masculine

Me gusta _____ bicicleta.

Me	gusta	_____	bicicleta.
			bicicleta is singular and feminine

Me	gusta	la	bicicleta is singular and feminine
		el is the definite article	bicicleta is singular and feminine

What are definite articles?

So now we have learned that you have to choose between four definite articles: el, la, los and las.
You select the correct definite article depending on the noun that it follows that can be either masculine or feminine (i.e. their gender)

Tip:

In English, there is only one definite article: the.
In English they can also be either singular or plural.

How about when it’s a noun that ends in something other than -o or -a?

Noun

Feminine or Masculine

Singular or Plural

los

las

helado

Masculine

Singular

helados

Tip: definite articles in English are ‘the’ (specific); indefinite articles in English are ‘a’ (not specific) (check out the indefinite article video)

RECALL: el helado de chocolate (the chocolate ice cream)

What did we learn?

How to use nouns?
How to make nouns singular or plural? If it ends in a vowel add-s. If it ends in a consonant add -es.
How to determine if nouns are feminine or masculine? Most that end in -o are masculine. Most that end in -a are feminine. The others have to memorized.
How to add definite articles to nouns? Basically ‘the’ in English or a specific item like the chocolate ice cream. There are 4 el, la, los and las.

Subject Pronouns in Spanish Explained

A subject pronoun is a word that replaces the Subject in a Sentence.The 12 Subject Pronouns in Spanish are: Yo,Yú,Él/Ella/Usted,Nosotros/Nosotras,Vosotros/Vosotras,Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes

Conjugation of Ser Made Easier

The Verb Ser means (To be) and is a crucial verb to know in Spanish. The verb Ser allows you to speak about yourself and others.
Learning how to conjugate the verb ser in the present tense will enable you to talk about yourself and others regarding when you want to say, “I am … You are … He is … etc.”

Adjectives in Spanish Made Easier

Adjectives in Spanish just like in English describe a noun. In Spanish, adjectives must agree in gender and number to the noun that they describe. In simple terms: If the noun is feminine and singular, the adjective should be feminine and singular. If the noun is plural and masculine, the adjective should be masculine and plural.

Conjugating ar Verbs Made Easier

To conjugate an -ar verb you remove the ending (-ar), and you add a new ending based on the subject or person performing the action.

Learn the Conjugation of Ar with FREE Video lessons, charts, Examples & worksheets.

Conjugating er & ir verbs Explained

To conjugate er and ir verbs you remove the ending (-er or -ir) and you add a new ending based on the subject or person performing the action.

Conjugating regular -er & -ir verbs works exactly the same way we learned how to conjugate -ar verbs, however, we have different endings.

Tener que + infinitive in Spanish Made Easier

Tener que + infinitive. The “tener” part of that formula has to be conjugated to allow us to know who is the person that has to do something.

Learn the Conjugation of Ar with FREE Video lessons, charts, Examples & worksheets.

Estar conjugation Made Easier

Estar is an irregular verb. The conjugations of Estar are:

Yo → estoy
Tú (you informal) → estás
Èl/Ella/ Ud (you formal) → está
Nosotros (nosotras) → estamos
Vosotros (vosotras) → estáis
Ellos/Ellas/Uds. → están

Ir conjugation Made Easier

Ir is an irregular verb. That means that it does not follow the pattern of regular -ir verbs. Do not think that it is an -ir verb. It is not. Ir is an irregular verb.

Let’s start by learning the conjugation of the verb ir: to go.

Stem changing e to ie in Spanish Made Easier

e to ie stem-changing verbs all have an e in the stem and that e is going to change to ie in all forms except for nosotros and vosotros. read more

Definite Article in Spanish Made Easier

Definite Articles in Spanish, In Spanish, you have to choose between four definite articles: el, la, los, and las. In Spanish, all nouns (including words for things) are either masculine or feminine this is called their gender. And just as in English they can also be either singular or plural.