why doesn't "aritmética" take the artivcle "el"?

Question

most nouns that begin with an a in spanish have the masculine definite article of el. why doesn't aritmetica?

Answer 1

First of all, it is not masculine. 2nd, you misspelled the word. It is aritmética. ( the accent mark is very important in this case.)

I believe that you may be referring to feminine words that begin with "a" or "ha" where the first syllable is stressed., like hacha, agua, águila, etc. These feminine words take the masculine article when in singular, unmodified form.

Since the accent mark places the stress on the "e"; not the beginning "a" the la does not change to el as it would if the first syllable was stressed.

¡Bienvenida al foro!

Welcome to the forum!

Answer 2

Aritmética is a feminine noun so it would have the feminine definite article and not the male definite article.

It would if the intial "a" was stressed, but it is not. - 0074b507, Sep 2, 2010