Why is the article for Agua "El" not "La"?

Question

I noticed on the flashcards it was spelt "el agua" but of course agua ends in an A so I really must be missing something?

Answer 1

one simple way to remember the noun gender is; masculine nouns usually end in: L O N E R S feminine nouns in: D ION Z A (acronym from spanish-is-your-amigo) here are some exceptions to this el dia (day) el sofá (sofa) la noche (night) la carne (meat) el Canadá (canada) la mano (hand) According to this, water "agua" looks feminine and it is. but another rule that springs into action is that if a singular feminine noun begins with á, a, or ha, the masculine definite article is used instead. because "la agua" sounds like "lagua", an "el agua" would sove the problem of two "a" sounds coming together. When the same noun is plural, the regular feminine article is used i.e. "las". So "el agua" and "las aguas" it is (where "s" separates the two "A"s).

Andreknue is right. Agua is feminine but it is used with the masculine article. - 003492fc, Aug 31, 2013

yea, my mistake! i remembered this only after i shut down the computer. now when i opened to correct, u already got the answer. another example: el aguilla (eagle) las aguillas (eagles).. u can find it in the reference article. - LeGoodGuy, Sep 1, 2013

guys, i changed the answer.. just couldnt let the best chosen answer to remain a wrong answer. - LeGoodGuy, Sep 1, 2013

Well done! - 003492fc, Sep 1, 2013

Answer 2

Agua is a feminine noun but because it starts with "A" el is used instead of la.

El agua es buena, toma la.

Exactly! - 003492fc, Aug 31, 2013

You're correct, but this explanation calls into question words like "abusadora", surely then it should be "el abusadora" but it is not. This is a phenomenon I've been trying to figure out for a while now. - Vida_de_Scott, Aug 31, 2013

Maybe it is not just the A but the AU. Who knows? - 00551866, Aug 31, 2013

el agua is a masculine noun - Cristian_solis, Sep 1, 2013

Answer 3

Agua is a feminine noun. I invite you to check it in every Spanish dictionary that you can find. For example: this site's translation tool says:

Agua has the masculine article el because it starts with 'a' and its first syllable is tonic. This means that its pronunciation is stressed on the first 'a' of the word.

Since Spanish does not have apostrophes like French does (which would be very useful), we cannot write L'agua. So, whilst agua is feminine, it is used with el in order to avoid the cacophony.

That's the way I was thought at school when I was a child and I hope this helps. :D

[Feel free to correct my English. Thank you]

Thanks, it is good to know why instead of it just is. - 00551866, Sep 1, 2013