del and de la
whats the difference between del and da la
2 Answers
All Spanish words have a gender, as is the case in many Indo-European languages, although English has lost this feature. Spanish has two genders- they are called feminine and masculine although things are placed in one category or another based on factors that might have nothing to do with what you might think- so a dress is masculine, and a tie feminine for instance.
Both "del" and "de la" mean "of the"- if it is before a masculine noun it is "del" and if before a feminine noun it is "de la" - the exception being that before a feminine word that begins with a stressed "a" sound it becomes "del".
There are also "de los" and "de las" for nouns that are in the plural.
Think of it this way. Originally it was probably de el and de la. It's a bit tricky to say "de el" so they shortened it to "del" to make it sound better. The French do this a lot.
