beginner's question

Question

what is the difference between Spanish word los,las,el,la,and
lo
the difference between la and las

Answer 1

Spanish nouns and adjectives have gender, i.e. they can be masculine or feminine (not related to male and female), and the article must agree with them:

masculine singular: el perro
masculine plural: los perros
feminine singular: la casa
feminine plural: las casas

Lo is called neutral article, but this one is different, because there are no neutral nouns in Spanish. This special one can be translated most of the time as "the thing (that)", and sometimes "how". It is used for things that can not be given a gender (or don't even have a specific name):

Lo que quiero = The thing that I want (=what I want)
Lo mejor = The best thing
Lo extraño = The strange thing