Do you always need to put el/la?

Question

I have YEARS of experience learning Spanish through school, but I still get marks all over my papers for not putting "El/La" when appropriate. I know it is used much more in Spanish than English but besides putting it in front of every noun I use what are some basic rules?

thanks!

Answer 1

Zarazara:

Paralee Whitmire is the much praised teacher of SpanishDict.com. She has prepared a Reference Page about these definite articles. Its a pretty quick and easy reader and you might enjoy her guided tour through the subject.
Just follow this link ----|>Definite Article.
My experience of Paralee's work is that nobody says it better.

Recuerdos/Regards,

Moe

Thank you! That helps a lot - zarazara, Nov 19, 2009

Answer 2

The first one that comes to mind is don't use el/la if you're using a pronoun; i.e. mis ojos, not mis los ojos.

"mis" would be a possessive adjective and not a pronoun. If it were a pronoun then you would replace the noun ojos with the appropriate pronoun (los míos) - Izanoni1, Nov 19, 2009

Answer 3

El equal He La equal She It's easy.

Answer 4

I know that, thanks! I just don't like sounding redundant all the time with el,la,los, las all over the place in my essays. I do it just to be safe though.