Definite articles and titles

Question

With most titles in Spanish a definite article is used when talking about a person. Ex. "El Padre Francisco", "La señora Vázquez", etc. I recently read "El Alacrán de Fray Gómez" and I am curious why the definite article is not used with Fray. Can anyone explain this to me? Thank you!!!

Answer 1

When you talk about "Father Francis" or "Mrs. Vázquez", you are giving them a polite treatment. If we were just talking about a child, we would simply say something like "Anita la Huerfanita" or "Pepito y las arañas"...

The word Fray is an "apócope" of the word Fraile.

We say "El fraile Martín", but we don´t say "El Fray Martín".

To give you another example: We use the words "Don" and "Doña" with respect (due to age or to social position): We say: "Don Emiliano vino ayer", not "El Don Emiliano vino ayer" We do use the articles when we say: "El señor Emiliano vino ayer"

I hope I didn't make this even worse for you to understand :S

Answer 2

¡Hola!, happyhrj:

 

Here is a link to a Reference Page about definite articles ----> Definite Article

 

On that page, under the heading "When NOT to use definite articles", it says, among other things:

With titles when addressing a person

And remember that the Fray in Fray Gomez is Friar which is a title like Don or Doña.

 

Saludos/Best regards,

Moe