Question about 'el agua' being female

Question

Hi all,

I just started learning spanish and stumbled over 'el agua' which is a female noun but uses the male article.

Is this a general rule for all nouns starting with an 'a' or even with any vowel?

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

Answer 1

When the A is the stressed syllable, yes it is the rule

You say el agua but you say LAS aguas. Not that you would ever need to, but you'd also say UN agua and UNAS aguas. Also las águilas and el águilas, las aves, el ave etc.

This also works with words that start with H but have a stressed A as the first sound. EL hambre, EL hacha.

Pero ¡Ojo! If the A is not stressed then it keeps the feminine article: La harina, la alfombra, la almohada

Muchas gracias! - thomasb, Dec 28, 2009

Also, if there is an intervening word la is used-la bonita ave - 0074b507, Dec 28, 2009

good point - 003487d6, Dec 28, 2009