Why is "el agua" not " la agua"?

Question

If many of the feminine words end in "a" why doesn't "el agua" begin with "la" instead of "el"?

• Good question, artchic, I'm pretty sure just not all words apply to the general rule. - April-Sarah Nov 16, 2009

Answer 1

Hey artchic, we actually just discussed this in other topic posted so i'm going to repost the best answer for it, compliments of Marianne. She explained it like this:

Just for those people who wonder why "idioma" (or words similar) is masculine:

Nouns of Greek origin that end in -ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine.

EXAMPLES:

• el programa/ program
• el mapa/ map
• el poeta/ poet
• el planeta/ planet
• el idioma/ language
• el sistema/ system
• el telegrama/ telegram
• el problema/ problem
• el clima/ climate
• el drama/ drama
• el cometa/ comet
• el diploma/ diploma
• el tema/ theme

Make sense?

• 'agua' doesn't end in -ma -pa or -ta. - knkurz Nov 16, 2009
• jaja, yes...but it does follow this rule, or atleast something along it's line. Sound bout right? - DJ_Huero Nov 16, 2009
• No - plural is not los aguas, it's las. - knkurz Nov 16, 2009
• True, but I also wasn't addressing plural. I was simply stating the best answer I could offer above. Now whether agua is of Greek origin beats me, but the above info explains many situations similar to this, if not this one. =) - DJ_Huero Nov 17, 2009

Answer 2

En mi clase de Español, mi profesora dijo que no está 'la agua' porque es dificil decirlo.

La agua would run together [say it fast!] because there are two 'a's next to each other. It's changed to 'el agua' so it's easier to say - but! the plural of 'el agua' is 'las aguas'.

Answer 3

Here's more info to better clear up what I've said above, and to even in more detail explain what knknurz's teacher was trying to explain. Big thanks to Nick-Cortina for helping me with this one.

"What was being discussed above was the use of "el" with words that begin with a stressed "a" or "ha" sound, such as "agua" and "águila". These words are FEMININE, so they are modified by feminine adjectives (el agua fría, el águila bonita), replaced by "la" as a DOP, etc. The only reason that they use "el" in their singular form is to avoid the difficulty (technically called a cacophony) of saying "la agua" or "la águila" very quickly (the a's would run into eachother.)

But also note, as Fred said, that if anything comes before the article and the noun, then "la" is used. So: "la mejor agua" and "la fantástica águila"."

Hope that clears any uncertainties.

• Perfect! - --Mariana-- Nov 17, 2009
• Pues, con una respuesta como eso de Marianne, I must have done well. =) - DJ_Huero Nov 17, 2009

Answer 4

There are many words in spanish that do not follow suit to the rule-- feminine if ending in an "a." Por ejemplo, (for example) "el problema" even though it ends with an "a" there is a rule that says if the word ends in "ma" it will be masculine. Another example would be the word "mapa." Even though it ends with an "a" the gender article before the word would be masculine. "el mapa." I hope this helps!

Answer 5

El agua fria. Cold water.

Answer 6

Another case is azucar (sugar):

El azucar

Los azucares