why is aqua feminine

Question

¿Why is "aqua" a feminine noun?

Don't you mean "agua"? - JoelMatthew, Oct 28, 2010

did you know there are at least 18 previous threads explaining this? - mediterrunio, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 1

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Both agua and águila, which mean "water" and "eagle," respectively, are feminine nouns. Yet we say el agua and el águila, making exceptions to the rule that la is used with feminine nouns. The reason has to do with pronunciation — la agua would sound the same as lagua and might be confusing.

May as well mention the H A words. el hacha - 0074b507, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 2

Agua is feminine because it looks beautiful from a distance, but you can never grab it and take it for your own without destroying the beauty.

Lodo is masculine because it is coarse and dirty and if you get too close it will follow you around making a mess wherever you go.

You guys should apply for jobs with the R A E. - 0074b507, Oct 28, 2010

jajaja, ewxcellent! - mediterrunio, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 3

agua is feminine, like tierra, because they give birth to life according to several ancient traditions.

Sounds romantic, but it probably had more to do with its Latin roots. - 0074b507, Oct 28, 2010

jejeje. and why are aqua and terra femenine? as passive elements, while aer and ignis are masculine and active elements? - mediterrunio, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 4

El agua

I assume the question is about "agua" not "aqua" and as to why the "el" is used for a feminine noun:

El agua

Las aguas

I attached an old thread explaining this above:

A feminine noun that starts with A or HA and is stressed on the first syllable takes the masculine article in the singular form.

Would it not also be el aQua for the same reasons. (if aQua were a feminine, Spanish word, which I do no see in the R A E dictionary) - 0074b507, Oct 28, 2010

It is given as el aQua in our dictionary, however. (no mention of the actual gender) - 0074b507, Oct 28, 2010

The only aqua I find is under the English words- I made the assumption that question was the common one that many people have had (myself included)- maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions so much. - Stadt, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 5

Well, I might as well weigh in, too.

The explanation above about why "el" is used with agua is probably the answer to this question.

But if the question is a more general one about why some words are feminine in gender while others are masculine in gender, even though they refer to things or ideas that have no physical sexuality, the answer is: that's just the way the language works. Spanish is a descendant of Latin, and Latin, like most ancient languages and nearly all modern languages, features gender as one of the grammatical characteristics of nouns. There is no reason to provide in answer to the word why.

Though the question may seem a little lame, I well recall my bewilderment many years ago as a high school Spanish student when I encountered this concept for the first time. Since gender is not a grammatical feature of English nouns, I had a hard time understanding this idea. And now, all these years later, I still make mistakes with Spanish gender. It's surprisingly hard for me to learn.

excellent comment. As that question has been answered several times before from a grammatical viewpoint, I wanted to add something new related to etymology triggered by that ´why´. None misleading intended. - mediterrunio, Oct 28, 2010

My post wasn't quite that serious :) - lorenzo9, Oct 28, 2010

Answer 6

"agua" (Spanish) is feminine because "aqua" (Latin) is/was feminine.