Gender and articles: el / la
Every noun has a gender, and the article travels with it. English has no equivalent — 'house' is just 'house' — so this is a habit to build, not a rule to reason out. Learn each word with its article from the start: not just casa, but la casa. For example: “el libro → los libros” — book → books. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Every noun has a gender, and the article travels with it. English has no equivalent — 'house' is just 'house' — so this is a habit to build, not a rule to reason out. Learn each word with its article from the start: not just casa, but la casa.
A guide that works in 80% of cases: -o → el, -a → la. There are exceptions (el día, la mano), but few, and they stick on their own.
Plural: el → los, la → las, and the noun takes -s (or -es after a consonant) — like the English -s, except the article changes with it.
By example
- el libro → los librosbook → books
- la ciudad → las ciudadescity → cities
- un café, por favora coffee, please
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Gender and articles: how does it work in Spanish?
Every noun has a gender, and the article travels with it. English has no equivalent — 'house' is just 'house' — so this is a habit to build, not a rule to reason out. Learn each word with its article from the start: not just casa, but la casa.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“el libro → los libros” — book → books. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.