Learn how to use the Spanish definite articles for masculine and feminine singular nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Javier: Hola soy Javier. Hi I’m Javier. |
| Jessie: And I’m Jessie, welcome to Absolute Beginner Season 2, Lesson 5 - You should definitely know about the Spanish definite article. In this lesson, you will learn how to use the definite articles for singular nouns such as the house and the car. |
| Javier: La casa y el coche. Where does this conversation take place? |
| Jessie: This conversation takes place at a café. |
| Javier: Who is the conversation between? |
| Jessie: The conversation is between Pedro and Maria. Two university students. |
| Javier: Escuchemos la conversación. |
| Jessie: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 1. PEDRO: Me gusta el coche de Alfredo. |
| 2. MARÍA: ¿Sí? Yo prefiero el coche de Marta, me gusta más el color. |
| 3. PEDRO: Es rojo, como la moto de Javi, ¿verdad? |
| 4. MARÍA: No. El coche de Marta es azul. |
| Jessie: Now let’s hear it one time slowly. |
| 1. PEDRO: Me gusta el coche de Alfredo. |
| 2. MARÍA: ¿Sí? Yo prefiero el coche de Marta, me gusta más el color. |
| 3. PEDRO: Es rojo, como la moto de Javi, ¿verdad? |
| 4. MARÍA: No. El coche de Marta es azul. |
| Jessie: Now with the English translation. |
| 1. PEDRO: Me gusta el coche de Alfredo. |
| 1. PEDRO: I like Alfredo's car. |
| 2. MARÍA: ¿Sí? Yo prefiero el coche de Marta, me gusta más el color. |
| 2. MARÍA: Really? I prefer Marta's car. I like the color better. |
| 3. PEDRO: Es rojo, como la moto de Javi, ¿verdad? |
| 3. PEDRO: It's red like Javi's motorbike, right? |
| 4. MARÍA: No. El coche de Marta es azul. |
| 4. MARÍA: No, Marta's car is blue. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessie: Okay, so up until now we have seen that there are many rules in Spanish grammar. |
| Javier: Así es. Yes, it’s true. |
| Jessie: But for every rule there are always some exceptions. |
| Javier: sí, as we say in Spanish, la excepción que confirma la regla. |
| Jessie: Which means something like, the exception that proves the rule. |
| Javier: ¿difícil verdad? |
| Jessie: Yes, it’s a little bit complicated. Can we see some examples? |
| Javier: Take the word oro, it means gold. Is it masculine or feminine? |
| Jessie: hmm, it ends in O, so I would say it is masculine. |
| Javier: bien, and how about radio? |
| Jessie: this also ends in O, so masculine? |
| Javier: No, we say la radio, which is feminine. |
| Jessie: Okay, that one got me. So are there any rules for the exceptions? |
| Javier: nada, none, you just have to learn them. |
| Jessie: so, it’s just one of those things that you have to learn to live with. |
| Javier: exacto, it’s though, but you will get used to it |
| Jessie: just something to be careful of while studying Spanish grammar. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jessie: The first word is |
| Javier: él |
| Jessie: The, masculine |
| Javier: él, él |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: la |
| Jessie: The, feminine |
| Javier: la, la |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: gustar |
| Jessie: To like |
| Javier: gus-tar, gustar |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: coche |
| Jessie: Car |
| Javier: co-che, coche |
| Jessie: Next we have |
| Javier: de |
| Jessie: From, of |
| Javier: de, de |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: moto |
| Jessie: Motorbike |
| Javier: mo-to, moto |
| Jessie: Next we have |
| Javier: más |
| Jessie: More, plus |
| Javier: más, más |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: color |
| Jessie: Color |
| Javier: co-lor, color |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: como |
| Jessie: How, as, like, about |
| Javier: co-mo, como |
| Jessie: Next we have |
| Javier: rojo |
| Jessie: Red |
| Javier: ro-jo, rojo |
| Jessie: Next is |
| Javier: azul |
| Jessie: Blue |
| Javier: a-zul, azul |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first one we will look at is |
| Javier: gustar |
| Jessie: To like. |
| Javier: Here is a sample sentence. Me gusta la paella. |
| Jessie: I like paella. |
| Javier: Or Me gusta estudiar español. |
| Jessie: I like studying Spanish. So it can be followed by a noun to say what you like or followed by a verb in the infinitive form to say what you like, to do. |
| Javier: Eso es. |
| Jessie: What’s the next one we look at? |
| Javier: de |
| Jessie: And this means of. For example |
| Javier: El coche de María. |
| Jessie: The car of Maria or Maria’s car. In this case, it shows possession. |
| Javier: Yes such as - La camara de Pedro. |
| Jessie: The camera of Pedro or Pedro’s camera. All right, can you introduce one more word? |
| Javier: moto |
| Jessie: Motorbike. |
| Javier: La moto es nueva. |
| Jessie: The motorbike is new. This is an O ending noun but it’s feminine. So is this one of those exceptions? |
| Javier: ah, No it’s real name is motocicleta, A ending but we always say - moto |
| Jessie: That makes sense. Alright, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessie: The focus of this lesson is the use of the definite article in Spanish. What is that you may ask? In English, it’s the word ‘the’, that comes before nouns. The bike, the cup, etcetera. Now in English, this ‘the’ never changes but in Spanish, it changes depending on whether the noun is singular or plural, and masculine or feminine. So first we will focus on the singular ones. |
| Javier: Such as el coche or la moto |
| Jessie: The car and the motorbike. So as you can see, they are L and La. So what is the difference between them? |
| Javier: ‘El’ is for masculine nouns, and ‘la’ for feminine. |
| Jessie: We already learned how to differentiate between masculine and feminine words. So we just need to use the proper definite article before the noun right? |
| Javier: Let’s look at some ejemplos, or examples - la camera. |
| Jessie: The camera. |
| Javier: el autobús |
| Jessie: The bus |
| Javier: el plátano |
| Jessie: The banana. |
| Javier: la televisión |
| Jessie: The TV. Okay we’ve looked at some examples but we can’t just use these definite articles whenever we want. There are some rules. |
| Javier: exacto |
| Jessie: For example, we must use them when we say the names of rivers and mountains. |
| Javier: Yeah for example, el río Duero or el Everest. |
| Jessie: Literally the Duero river or the Everest. Also we use these definite articles when we talk about specific things such as |
| Javier: El coche de Pedro. or La moto de Martha. |
| Jessie: The car of Pedro or Pedro’s car and The motorbike of Martha or Martha’s motorbike. As you can see, here we are talking about a specific car and a specific motorbike and that’s why we use the definite article. We also use them with the days of the week when you want to talk about when something happened. |
| Javier: El lunes, el martes, el miércoles |
| Jessie: On Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday. |
| Javier: el jueves, el viernes, el sábado |
| Jessie: On Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday. |
| Javier: y el domingo |
| Jessie: And on Sunday. All right. Let’s do some practice now. Listen and repeat. The car. |
| Javier: el coche |
| Jessie: The bed. |
| Javier: la cama |
| Jessie: On Thursday. |
| Javier: el jueves |
| Jessie: The Nile river. |
| Javier: el río Nilo |
| Jessie: Alberto’s house. |
| Javier: la casa de Alberto |
Outro |
| Jessie: All right. Let’s quickly recap this lesson. We learned some rules about how to use the definite articles for singular nouns such as |
| Javier: el apartamento |
| Jessie: The apartment |
| Javier: la comida |
| Jessie: The food and in the next lesson, we will see more uses of the definite article and we will learn the plural forms of it. |
| Javier: genial! Right. |
| Jessie: Well that’s all for this lesson, be sure to let us know if you have any questions on this lesson by leaving us a comment. |
| Javier: yes, we would love to hear from you |
| Jessie: by the way listener ever pressed for time, listen to the dialogue lesson recap |
| Javier: this audio tracks only contain the dialogue |
| Jessie: so you can quickly recap a lesson. Go to SpanishPod101.com |
| Javier: and listen to this lesson’s dialogue, only audio track |
| Jessie: Thanks for listening. |
| Javier: Muchas gracias, thank you. |
| Jessie: See you next time. |
| 1. PEDRO: Me gusta el coche de Alfredo. |
| 2. MARÍA: ¿Sí? Yo prefiero el coche de Marta, me gusta más el color. |
| 3. PEDRO: Es rojo, como la moto de Javi, ¿verdad? |
| 4. MARÍA: No. El coche de Marta es azul. |
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13 Comments
HideWhat color do YOU like? Rojo? Azul? Another color?
Hola Teodora,
Muy bien! Todo esta correcto!
Lo unico que te falto son las tildes y la ñ.
Manaña
día
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Que color me gusta mas?
Me gusta el azul.
Mi coche es verde.
Manana es lunes, el primer dia de la semana.
Please let me know if what I wrote is correct?
thank you.
Hola Jani,
As for the days of the week, we use masculine article "el".
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola Jani,
Thank you for your comments.
Both mean car. But the usage of these words depends on the region/country.
For example, Spain and Argentina use the word "coche" or "auto" for a car.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Also, with days of the week, which is it? la, el, los? i mean for a single day, like monday, not mondays.
i thought at another time, someone said car was 'carro'. what's the difference between carro and coche?
thanks! you've sure been helpful, and these lessons are great!!!! thanks so much!
Hola Elena,
Sometimes you can omit the use of articles. Here is some info that help you when to use it or not.
Uses of Article
As previously mentioned, Spanish nouns partner with an article. Most of the time, knowing when and when not to use the article is obvious. But, there are many times in Spanish that you will use a article and you will NOT translate it to mean "the."
When to use Articles:
1. With nouns used in a general sense
"La comida de México es deliciosa." - Mexican food is delicious.
"Las películas de Almodóvar son interesantes." - Almodóvar´s movies are interesting.
2. With days of the week
"El lunes tengo que trabajar." - On Monday, I have to work.
"Los lunes, voy al gimnasio." - On Mondays, I go to the gym.
3. With names of languages and certain proper nouns
"El japonés y el alemán son lenguas difíciles."- Japanese and German are difficult languages.
"Me gusta mucho el español." - I really like Spanish.
"Vivo en los Estados Unidos." - I live in the United States.
"El Salvador es un país muy interesante." - El Salvador is a very interesting country.
Exception: When the language is used a compliment to the verb instead of the subject
"Yo hablo español." - I speak Spanish.
"Quiero aprender español." - I want to learn Spanish.
"Me gusta estudiar español." - I like to study Spanish.
"Me enseñaban español." - They taught me Spanish.
4. With parts of the body and clothing
"Me duele el estómago. (My stomach hurts.)
"Tienes la casa muy bonita. (Your house is very pretty.)
5. To tell time
"Es la una." - It is one o'clock.
"Vamos a las tres y media." - (We go at three thirty.
6. When talking about someone with a title
"El doctor Hernández es inteligente." - Dr. Hernández is intelligent.
"La señora Cuevas tiene una casa bonita." - Mrs. Cuevas has a beautiful house.
When NOT to use definite articles
1. With titles when addressing a person, or with San, Santo/a, Don, and Doña
"Señora Ocón, ¿cómo está?" - Mrs. Ocón, how are you?
"Santo Domingo está en el caribe." - Santo Domingo is in the Caribbean.
"Don Juan es un hombre muy romántico." - Don Juan is a very romantic man.
2. With nouns referring to academic subjects
"Mi amigo estudia matemáticas y biología." - My friend studies math and biology.
3. With ordinal numbers in titles
"Felipe II (Segundo)" - Philip the Second
4. When days of the week follow a form of Ser
"Hoy es lunes." - Today is Monday.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hi,
what difference in the usage of articles in follow sentences: "Mi color favorito es el gris" and "Su color favorito es verde"? Thank you.
Hola Esteban,
Thank you for your feedback!
The typo will be fix as soon as possible.
Gracias,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
There is a typo in the grammar section of the lesson notes. It is in the part where they are giving examples of using gustar. The third example is:
A nosotros nos gust air de compras.
Obviously it should be "gusta ir", not "gust air"