"el agua" .....

Question

I am very new to Spanish, and as far as I understood, feminine nouns end with an "a" and have the article, "la" before them. but here it is said "el agua".. so am I wrong, or is there some other rule too?

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum

May be you can have a look at this thread on el agua, it is very clear I think.

As you are new to the site, please note correct spelling and capitalization are mandatory on this site

Thanks

so, el agua is just an eception, or words beginning with 'a' or 'ha' generally take the article "el", as posted by some user? thanks once again! - dyuti_c, Apr 25, 2010

Answer 2

Yes, there is some other rule. It has been expounded upon in many threads here. I'll find one. Maybe we need a reference sheet on this phenomenon.

previous thread on el agua

Also, just so that you may be forewarned, there are many masculine words in Spanish that end with an "a", so realize that that is just a generality. The only sure way to identify the gender of a noun is to look it up in a reliable dictionary. (There are also many feminine words that do not end in "a").

Answer 3

If it starts with a stressed "A", then you use "el" in the singular form. BUT it is feminine. el agua --las aguas el aguila--las aguilas el hacha--las hachas