Agua (water)
1
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Agua (water) ends with an "a". Why is it el agua and not la agua?
1664 views
updated Jul 6, 2011
posted by subani
3 Answers
2
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When singular most words that start with the letter "a" use the masculine article "el" even though the word is actually feminine.
The reasoning is this: La agua, when you say it out loud, would sound like "lagua."
So, to differentiate the word and the article attached to the word we say "el agua."
However, when plural, if you were to say "the waters" it would be "las aguas." because the "s" in "las" will not cause a funny mixing of the words that la and agua do.
See previous answers to this question if you are still confused.
updated Jul 7, 2011
posted by Fredbong
It must be a stressed "a", not just any word starting with "a". - 0074b507, Jul 6, 2011
ángel, agua, hache, hacha, all feminine words with stress on first syllable (a or ha). la artista for example does not stress the 1st syllable - 0074b507, Jul 6, 2011
0
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If you search the forum for "agua" you will get pretty much nothing else but answer threads on exactly your question.
updated Jul 6, 2011
posted by pesta
0
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Link didn't work, sorry.
updated Jul 6, 2011
edited by swampy
posted by swampy
Put it back up. Maybe we can fix it. - 0074b507, Jul 6, 2011
It was a link to the Search page. It doesn't use url parameters. - pesta, Jul 6, 2011
