Agua fría or agua frio?
I was reading the instructions on a drink mix product from Mexico, and the spanish side says, "En un vaso de agua fria vierta una cucharada sopera de Klass Horchata y agite hasta disolver." My question is why is the adjective cold in the feminine state? I thought it was "el agua" and therefore would be "agua frio" not "agua fria."
3 Answers
Agua is feminine. It's 'el agua' (as was mentioned already) for phonetic reasons. When the tonic syllable of a noun is the 'a' ...you will use el rather than la.
el hada (AH-dah)
el agua (AH-gwah)
That 'a' is saying it's name as the tonic/stressed syllable beginning those words.
la agua (lahah-gwah)
However, the word is still feminine, and your adjectives with be feminine to match.
As noted, when you can separate those "Ah's" ...then you will use the feminine form of the article. Ex. Las aguas
La alfombra: Because here the A is not tonic in that first syllable. There will only be 1 tonic syllable. In this word it is (al-FOM-bra)
Hope I explained that decently.
Agua fria is correct as agua is feminine they say el when a feminine noun starts with the letter "a" for phonetic reasons e.g. el agua, las aguas, el alma, las almas etc.
Buena pregunta.
