preposition in spanish
when do we use un or una??
2 Answers
Un and una are indefinite articles, not prepositions. So you would use them before masculine nouns (un) or feminine nouns (una) as the equivalents of the English "a" and "an."
el perro = the dog
un perro = a dog
la lámpara = the lamp
una lámpara = a lamp
Oops, a little bit of grammar. First of all "un/una" are NOT prepositions. Examples of prepositions are "de", "para", "por", etc. "Un" and "una" are INDEFINITE ARTICLES as opposed to DEFINITE ARTICLES. Examples of the latter would be "El" and "La".
Your question is more related to GERUND. "Un" is used with masculine nouns and "una" is used with feminine nouns. The problem is determining which nouns are masculine and which are feminine. Generally speaking, nouns ending with "o" or "n" are masculine. Those ending in "a" are feminine. There are exceptions. Most nouns ending in "ción" are feminine.
Espero que esto te sirva bien.
