When to use el and la?
I was wondering when to use el in front of a word and when to use la?
4 Answers
la precedes nouns that are feminine in gender, singular in number
el precedes nouns that are masculine in gender, singular in number
search "gender" in previous posts on how to determine gender
(no completely comprehensive rule exists, but there are "groupings" to recognize, such as nouns referring to sex, or that end in certain letter combinations)
there are also other "rules" that your question covers such as with people's names, but I think "gender" is what your question was about.
HI drupe, many or most words ending in a are femenine, most ending in o are masculine, all ending in ción are feminine, many of these rules you can find here.
Look at this interesting article for exceptions :
Hi Drupe Unfortunately when you learn a new noun you also have to learn the gender. It is no good looking up the word for "hand" and simply remembering "mano" and then assuming it is masculine because it is not.
Hand - La mano
There are many words which break the o/a, masculine/feminine rule. The reason for which I do not know but possibly Lazarus can explain, if there is indeed an explanation.
So my friend, learn the word and the gender at the same time.
you use el when it is maculine, la when it is feminine.
But how will you determine the gender of things and etc, when they don't have any sex? For example, you say el lunes not la lunes. Is there any rule for the usage of el and la for this instance? It's kinda confusing when it comes to things.
