¿El Águila Roja?

Question

I suppose águila is one of those words like policía that can be masculine or feminine, depending on whether it's a male or female, so the article can be el or la. But El Comisario calls him El Águila Roja. Does the adjective remain feminine even though the article changes?

Answer 1

It does not change gender. Águila is always a feminine word. When it's singular, it takes the article el only because la ends in a stressed 'a' sound and águila begins with a stressed 'a' sound. There are other words like this such as el agua. They are feminine words, plural they take las because it doesn't end it 'a'.

Doh! I knew that. Never get old. But then what about policía? It does change gender. Would a fat male policeman be el policía gordo? - KevinB, Jul 24, 2010