Not using articles in sentences?

Question

Hi!

I'm trying to learn spanish, and there's one thing I don't really get.

Just now I learned about the articles. What I don't understand is why you say "Comen sandía." instead of saying "Comen 'una' sandía.". The teacher during the lecture then said you have to put the definite article in the sentence and said "Come una naranja."

And one more thing, do we not have to put the articles before a drink related words like leche and jugo?

I'm kind of mixed up here... I'd really appreciate if someone helped me out.

¡Muchas Gracias!

Answer 1

It may help to think of this how you would in English. For example, you would not normally say "eat a watermelon," instead, you would say "eat watermelon." The same goes for "eat an orange" and "eat orange." The same also goes for the drinks.

Hopefully that helps!

Answer 2

Hola espyeuja,

Yours is a great question! There's nothing grammatically wrong with saying "comen una sandía". However, because a watermelon is rather a large fruit and we usually portion it out, we tend to say in Spanish "Comen sandía" (as to not specify how much of it gets eaten). Una naranja is usually eaten by only one person, hence the use of the indefinite article.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

Well, it depends on how you use them in a sentence. When you say "una sandía", you're pretty much saying "a watermelon". So saying "Comen sandía," you're saying, "The are eating watermelons. And there are other articles for drinks like: La lech, el café, ect. You don't have to use the article in a sentence if you're stating it like this: "Beben leche".

Translation: They are drinking milk.