Definite Articles (El/La/Los/Las)

In English, there is only one definite article: the. In Spanish, there are four, because the article must agree with the noun in both gender and number. Mastering the definite articles is essential for building grammatically correct sentences.

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The Four Definite Articles

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	el	los
Feminine	la	las

Examples

Spanish	English
el libro	the book
la mesa	the table
los libros	the books
las mesas	the tables
el profesor	the teacher (male)
la profesora	the teacher (female)
los profesores	the teachers
las profesoras	the female teachers

Tip: Think of the article and the noun as a unit. When you learn a new noun, always learn it with its article: el agua, la casa, los niños, las flores.

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Choosing the Correct Article

The article must match the noun in two ways:

1. Gender — masculine (el/los) or feminine (la/las)
2. Number — singular (el/la) or plural (los/las)

Step-by-Step

1. Determine the gender of the noun (masculine or feminine)
2. Determine the number (singular or plural)
3. Select the matching article

Noun	Gender	Number	Article	Full Form
perro	masculine	singular	el	el perro
perros	masculine	plural	los	los perros
casa	feminine	singular	la	la casa
casas	feminine	plural	las	las casas

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Special Case: Feminine Nouns with El

Some feminine nouns take the masculine article el in the singular (but revert to las in the plural). This happens when a feminine noun begins with a stressed a- or ha- sound.

Singular	Plural	Meaning
el agua	las aguas	the water(s)
el águila	las águilas	the eagle(s)
el alma	las almas	the soul(s)
el hambre	las hambres	the hunger(s)
el hacha	las hachas	the axe(s)
el área	las áreas	the area(s)

Important: These nouns are still feminine. Adjectives that modify them remain feminine:

• el agua fría (the cold water) — fría is feminine
• el águila blanca (the white eagle) — blanca is feminine

Why does this happen? It is a phonetic rule to avoid the awkward sound of la agua (two "a" sounds together). This only applies to singular; the plural las aguas sounds fine.

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Contractions: Al and Del

Spanish has exactly two contractions involving definite articles.

Al = a + el

When the preposition a (to, at) comes before el, they merge into al.

Separate	Contraction	Meaning
a + el parque	al parque	to the park
a + el médico	al médico	to the doctor
a + el cine	al cine	to the cinema
a + el supermercado	al supermercado	to the supermarket

Del = de + el

When the preposition de (of, from) comes before el, they merge into del.