Confusion about un and una...

Question

When should I use un and when should I use una?

un = a?

una = a?

I see a trend with una being used if the word is femine, but not always... Such as:

un sofá

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,

TY - dpark119, Mar 16, 2014

Answer 1

You are correct in that una is for feminine things; however sofá is masculine

It's just one of those strange exceptions

Un is for masculine, as you probably knew.

*Use unos instead of un and unas instead of unas when the word is plural i.e. un sofá ; unos sofás (= a sofa, some sofas)

un= a (or an)

una= a (or an)

unos= some

unas= some

"Mamá" ends in -á and it is feminine, though. - lazarus1907, Aug 24, 2011

Answer 2

Already answered, but I will leave it for the link to indefinite article usage.

sofá is a masculine noun. The only dependable way to determine the gender of a noun is to look in a dictionary. All of the spellings clues to gender are generalities and have exceptions.

indefinite articles

Answer 3

When should I use un and when should I use una?

You use "un" with masculine words and "una" with feminine words.

I see a trend with una being used if the word is femine, but not always... Such as:

un sofá

"Sofá" is a masculine word. While the largest percentage of the words ending in -a are feminine, there are still more than 1000 words that end in -a that are masculine. The -o ending is safer, because there are not even 10 exceptions.

If the word ends in accented á instead of just plain a it is masculine

Not quite. It is true that most words ending in -a are masculine, but don't forget "mamá", and then add to the list a few unusual ones like "soleá", "guaraná" or "alcaná".

Answer 4

The words of Greek origin ending in -a such as problema, dilema, clima ... are masculine, in spite of their ending . Sofá is in fact Arabic in origin, but it came to us via the Turkish language.