de v. del
What is the main difference between de and del? When would you use each of these in standard conversation?
4 Answers
Welcome to the forum.
Del= de + el
You use del whenever de is followed by a singular masculine noun in a context that requires the article. You use de in any other context that requires de.
Es la casa del padre de mi amigo. It is the house of my friend’s father (the father of my friend).
Specific father, so you use the/el. You have labeled the friend as my, so you don’t say “the my friend”
Es la casa de la madre de mi amigo. Here, because madre is feminine, you use la, so no contraction.
Es la casa de Juan.
Juan may be masculine, but you don’t say the Juan.
That being said, when to use an article is a difficult skill, one of the last to develop. Usually it matches English, but not always, and it is still a bit of a struggle for me.
Hello!
These four links from this page might be the answer to your question.
- When to use Del insted of De?
- What does the contractions del and de la mean?
- Is there a gramatical difference between "del" and "de el"? Or is it just a pronunciation thing?
- Please explain the difference between de la, del, al?
Hope this helps.
Regards!
The basic rule is that "de" followed by unstressed (no accent mark) "el" gets contracted to "del" More simply "de" + "el" = "del." Meaning "of the" or "from the" (De can mean either "of" or "from" in English.)
A word of caution: When we have a pronoun such as desde and el follows it some people want to say "desdel", but this is incorrect because when we speak fast it may sound like this. Correct usage, ie: Te mando saludos desde el estado de Michoacán.
