Definate vs Indefinate Articles
What makes a noun Definite or Indefinite? An Egg is El Huevo which is singular and masculine but a fish is Un Pescado also singular and masculine.
Would it be incorrect to refer to a fish as El Pescado?
2 Answers
Fish in the water = pez, peces Fish in your plate = pescado.
The definite and indefinite articles work just like in English. A fish = any old fish The fish = a specific fish
El pescado que comí ayer = the fish that I ate yesterday. Comí solo un pequeño pescado = I only ate one little fish.
Melita Quebec, Canada
Hi Schooley1104,
Would it be incorrect to refer to a fish as El Pescado?
If you want to say "a fish" you would say "un pescado" but if you wanted to say "the fish" you would say "el pescado."
What makes a noun Definite or Indefinite? An Egg is El Huevo which is singular and masculine but a fish is Un Pescado also singular and masculine.
In English and Spanish, we can make for definite or indefinite noun phrases by use of definite or indefinite articles.
English's definite article:
- The
English's indefinite articles:
- A
- An
Spanish's definite articles:
- El
- Los
- La
- Las
Spanish's indefinite articles:
- Un
- Unos
- Una
- Unas
Use of a definite or indefinite article depends on your meaning and context.
Also, if your native language is English, you can use, for the most part, the same rules for definite and indefinite articles in Spanish.
If you're referring to a specific fish, say you're in the kitchen asking someone to pass you the fish you took out of the fridge... You might say "Dame el pescado por favor."
If, however, you go to the supermarket and you'd like one whole fish... "Quisiera un pescado entero." (In reality you'd more likely refer to the species of fish... "Quisiera un salmón entero")
Refer to the following resources for more information about the use of definite and indefinite articles, in Spanish and English:
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/defart1.htm
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/
Edit: Note from Wikipedia about use of "some" as indefinite article in English
The word some is sometimes used as a functional equivalent of a(n) with plural and uncountable nouns (also called a partitive). For example, Give me some apples, Give me some water (equivalent to the singular countable forms an apple and a glass of water). Grammatically this some is not required; it is also possible to use zero article: Give me apples, Give me water. The use of some in such cases implies a more limited quantity. (Compare the forms unos/unas in Spanish, which are the plural of the indefinite article uno/una.)
