La, Los, El, or Las?
0
votes
What Spanish version of 'the' do you use if a word starts with ma? Don't you switch it or something like that?
796 views
updated Sep 23, 2015
posted by jrpalmer
I see your haven't completed your profile. Please take a moment to add your gender and language proficiency. - rac1, Sep 23, 2015
1 Answer
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vote
The first two letters being ma have nothing to do with the gender of a word.
You may be confused due to having seen something that says that words of Greek Origin that end in ma tend to be masculine.
Such as:
el telegrama
el programa
el problema
el sistema
el poema
el idioma
el clima
el tema
There are many others.
But there are also some feminine words that end in ma:
La pluma
La cama
La fama
and others
So you can't use a generalized rule, you have to learn the gender with the word.
Los is when you pluralize el, Las the plural for la
Las plumas
Los temas
updated Sep 23, 2015
edited by bosquederoble
posted by bosquederoble
