How do you know when to use el or la?

Question

When do you put el in front of a word and when do you put la in front of a word

Answer 1

Welcome to SpanishDict!

In addition to what Kevin has said, when you look up a Spanish noun, it will have either an "f" or a "m" after it. That lets you know whenter the noun takes a feminine or masculine article.

It's easiest to learn the article that goes with the noun when you learn the noun. Learn it as a unit, and you won't make mistakes or have to re-learn it correctly. For example: the table----la mesa. When you practice it, just kind of run it together when you pronounce it....lamesa. That way it will just "sound right" to say "la mesa" and it will sound totally wrong to say "el mesa".

Answer 2

Spanish nouns have masculine and feminine gender. El and la mean the in English, and they have gender, too. The gender has to match the noun, so you use el in front of masculine nouns and la in front of feminine nouns. The lessons here in the learning tab will explain this in more detail.

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