El agua vs. La agua

Question

I just finished watching lesson 1-3 Food and Articles. I noticed that the word agua did not follow the rule for masculine and feminine articles. Even the dictionary described agua as a feminine noun but in the examples it uses El as the article. Why does it use a masculine article if it is a feminine noun?

Muchos gracias,

Larry

Good question...welcome to the forum! - --Mariana--, Aug 2, 2012

Glad you asked the question! I had been thinking about this myself. - yahvey_hoffman, Aug 2, 2012

Answer 1

Just as an addition to what has already been mentioned, where feminine nouns begin with a or ha and are stressed on the first syllable for reasons of euphony, (pleasantness of sound), the noun takes the article "el". However, where the stress is not on the first syllable, as in "abuela", then "la" would be used, ie, "la abuela".

Very good,Eddy. Worth my vote :) - viejito, Aug 2, 2012

Answer 2

As DR says, it's a very common question.

Any Spanish word that has the accent on the first "a" will be paired with the masculine article. But don't forget that "agua" is still feminine, e.g., agua fria, las aguas, etc.

I think of it like the "an" we use for orange, apple, aunt, etc., in English, instead of the "a."

Answer 3

This has been a recurring question. Yes, "agua" is feminine, but "el" is used to avoid slurring of "a" sounds that would occur with "la agua". The word for "eagle" is similar: "el águila", with the plural following the usual feminine form of "las águilas".

Answer 4

There are several nouns that do not follow the gender rule.

Here is a game that will help you to identify those nouns.

Here is a reference article for the Nouns - Gender