Why are "la" and "el" used in flashcards?
I've been wondering about this for the longest time.
If the word in English, for instance, is "fireplace", then why is the Spanish word "la chimenea", instead of "chimenea".
It's like this for pretty much every noun in Flashcards.
Why are "el" and "la" used if the English words aren't preceded by "the"?
4 Answers
So you can learn them with their gender.
Just as Lazarus says:
In Spanish you need to learn a noun with its article because every word has a gender. In English this is not required.
I have only made two sets of flashcards so far, but I put "the" on the English side as well- I will admit primarily so that the automatic translator would put in the right article for me so that I would only have to check those that came out wrong. (Interestingly enough "lime" comes out as "cal", "check" as "de verificación", etc.- so some user generated flashcard sets do not have the meaning that I suspect the user intended).
I think it is very important to learn the article with the noun as a unit because the goal is to be able to speak without excessive hesitation. General rules are nice, but in spoken language you generally do not have the time to think through what the rules say, it has to come out instinctively without thought.
I have enough difficulty trying to develop an instinct to gender and pluralization match adjectives, which is a very simple rule. I prefer to see the article every time I see a noun so it becomes an automatic part of the noun.
You will also find that there are many instances when articles are used in Spanish where they are not used in an English equivalent. It's simply not natural in Spanish to say "Chimenea" as a stand-alone word, ie: "Me gustan las chimeneas antiguas." This cannot be said without the article.
