Las Calenas Son Como Los Flores

Question

This is a song from Colombia, by The Latin Brothers. Something is "...like the flowers", but I do not know what.

Answer 1

Thanks

Answer 2

Caleños = men of Cali. I don't know the reason for the spelling change. It probably just sounded better that way. Just like I'm a San Franciscan, not a San Franciscon.

Answer 3

Thank you for the information and for the correction. I had the article written down both ways. Your discussion with Marco was helpful.

Is there some reason behind the vowel change from i to e when changing the city name to that of the female residents? Is "-eñas" always the suffix used? What are the men of Cali called'

Answer 4

Yes.

Answer 5

Thank you, James for your very good advice.
Also I want know the difference between "el" and "los", "la" and "las". Are "los" and "las" for plural nouns? Is this the difference? So they all mean "the", correct?

Marco

Answer 6

The rule is that nouns ending with -o are masculine and those with -a are feminine. There are exceptions such as la mano and el programa. Words that end with -ión and -dad are feminine, without exception. There are other rules that I don't recall at the moment. There is no rule for words such as flor, as far as I know.

Just memorize the article along with the noun. That is, don't memorize "flower = flor," memorize "the flower = la flor."

Answer 7

Thank you, James.
I also want to know how to recognize the words if they are feminine or not. I thought before that ending letter is an "a", the word should be feminine. However it seems like what i thought is not correct because flor is an exception. Could you please tell me if there is a rule for feminine or not, James? Or what I thought is almost correct, just there are some exceptions that need to be memorized.

Muchas gracias por tu ayuda, James

Marco

Answer 8

Please don't hijack threads. You have already asked your question in your own thread, and I have replied.

Answer 9

I'm sorry to intrude but can someone help me with a pronounciation please'

Answer 10

Yes, that's the difference. Flor is a feminine noun.

Answer 11

James, what is the difference between "las" and "los"?
Is "las" for feminine? Is this the difference?

Gracias por tu ayuda.

Marco

Answer 12

The proper spelling is Las Caleñas, which means the women of Cali.

And it should be las flores.