Masculine/Feminine Food

Question

Hi everyone,

So I just finished the early lesson about foods and how the word "the" will be masculine or feminine depending on whether or not the food ends with a o/a or consonant.

So during the tests, one example confused me.

El Aqua.

If it ends in an "a", isn't it feminine? So why El and not La?

Also La Carne? Ends with an e but "the" is feminine?

Thanks for any help offered in advance!

Welcome to the forum! - 00b6f46c, Jan 30, 2012

Answer 1

Hi

Lots of Spanish words are irregular and do not follow the rules just like ''el agua'' although agua ends in A the article is masculine simply because it's one of those hundreds of irregular words in Spanish!

Look here for a better explanation and more examples.

Please make a search on the forum, you'll find tons of threads opened about this topic before

Search for "agua" will get you most of them. - pesta, Jan 30, 2012

Ah - I figured that was the case. Confusing! But I guess I have to memorize those special cases. Thanks for the link! Big help! - Renjiluvah, Jan 30, 2012

You're welcome! - 00b6f46c, Jan 30, 2012

Answer 2

El agua is feminine. If the subject starts with "a" creates a phonetic "clash" with la. Therefore, La-agua doesn't sound smooth. There are some exceptions to the rule but you will get the hold of it quickly. For example, "La alcoba" (The bedroom). Both a sound together to avoid the clash. you will say. "lalcoba" but it is still written "la alcoba"

• About la carne, la, and car, phonetically sounds better that "El carne", but there is "El carné" (some people say el carnet). In these cases, because the tilde goes on top of "e"or ends in "t" it smooths the phonetic of the word. (Carné or carnet is a document of identification)
• Other examples are: El águila, el arma, al arca, etc.

That's true about "agua" but aqua is also still a feminine noun. It goes back to "Las aguas" in the plural. Carne is not a masculine noun. Even when there would not be a phonetic clash (los carnes) it is still feminine. - Jadey7, Jan 30, 2012

Aqua is not a word in Spanish. By adding "s" to form the plural "las aguas" the phonetic clash is fixed. Las carnes, which is correct, have no clash, but it sounds smoother. In Spanish, the sounds are ment to glide and avoid extreme vocalization - farallon7, Jan 30, 2012

Answer 3

Your example of "La carne" is simply a quirk of the language. There is no real logic behind these rules - it's just the way the evolved. All rules can be broken. Annoying, but true. If you learned phonics in elementary school, you'll probably remember that every phonics rule had exceptions! These would be the exceptions. Another example is

El día - day

There isn't much much to be done except to pay close attention and memorize these nouns with their articles. This is why most curriculums always tell you to memorize the articles along with the "el" or "la."

And, as Pesta pointed out, "aqua" is actually a feminine noun but uses "el" (only in the singular) because "la agua" is hard to pronounce correctly. Hence, "el agua." When it is plural, it becomes "las aguas."

Of course, el día is always masculine. Agua is always feminine, but uses the masculine article "el" in the singular. I wouldn't compare these two *exceptions*. - pesta, Jan 30, 2012

True, however it does relate to his question about "La carne." I'll edit it my answer and make it a little more clear. - Jadey7, Jan 30, 2012

Yeah weird! Feminine words with masculine articles- what? I def have a lot to memorize. Thanks for all the help everyone! - Renjiluvah, Jan 30, 2012