'Una' or 'la'
Hey guys,
wanted a help from you all,
could you please tell me that how to decide when to use 'una' and when to use 'la' .
For an example -
Es la regla de Juan. Or E s una regla de Juan.
Guys please help me it is very confusing.
Gracias
3 Answers
La is definite article,feminine,singular.Una es indefinite article ,feminine singular.La and una are for the feminine nouns.Use la like the and una like a,an:
LA = THE
La casa = The house La mano = The hand La mujer = The woman
UNA = A, an
Una casa = A house Una mano = A hand Una mujer = A woman
La also can be
- personal pronoun,third person,feminine,singular,accusative (direct object = her):
LA = HER
La veo = I see her
-personal pronoun,polite form,feminine,singular,accusative (direct object = usted =you)
La veo, señora. = I see you,madam.
Una can be cardinal numeral,feminine,singular :
Hay dos hombres,tres niños y una mujer en casa =There are two man,three kids and a / one woman in the house.
''La'' es articulo definido,feminino,singular.''Una'' es articulo indefinido,feminino,singular.¡Usa ''la'' como the y '' una'' como a, an!:
LA = THE
La casa = The house La mano = The hand La mujer = The woman
UNA = A, an
Una casa = A house Una mano = A hand Una mujer = A woman
Tambien la puede ser:
-pronombre personal,tercera persona,feminina,singular,acusativo (complemento directo = her):
LA = HER
La veo = I see her
-pronombre personal,forma de cortesía,feminina,singular,acusativo (complemento directo = usted = you):
La veo, señora. = I see you,madam.
Una puede ser numeral cardinal,feminino,singular:
Hay dos hombres,tres niños y una mujer en casa =There are two man,three kids and a / one woman in the house.
The difference is that "una" means "a" and "la" means "the," more or less.
Just do it as you would write it in English. This is over-simplifying it a bit, yes, but in general it´s the same idea.
You could say both of the sentences you gave, but they mean different things.
Say you want "regla" to mean "ruler," as in, the object you use to measure distances.
Es la regla de Juan. "It is the ruler of Juan" or better translated as "it is Juan's ruler." Say there was a famous man named Juan Sanchez who measured things with a golden ruler. That ruler became famous as much as Juan did, and now it is in a museum in Spain. The plaque above it would read "La regla de Juan" because it is like saying "Juan's ruler."
Es una regla de Juan. This is gramatically correct too. But because it is "una," or "a," it is translated as "It is a ruler of Juan" or better, "It is one of Juan's rulers." It infers that there are more, because it is "a" ruler and not THE ruler. So maybe you are babysitting some kids named Juan and Pablo. There is a bunch of junk on the floor of their play area, and you pick up one of a few rulers that you see on the ground and ask the kids what it is. Pablo tells you "Es una regla de Juan." "It is one of Juan's rulers."
More about "una" and "la" can be found on the grammar page.
I'm not sure what is exactly the doubt you have. When you say "Es la regla de Juan" you are referring to one specific rule: "(Esta/This) Es la regla de Juan", but when you say "Es una regla de Juan" you may imply (not necessarily) that there could be more than one rule. Depending on the circumstance you might say the same thing with both sentences. Both expressions are correct/valid in spanish.
