confused with the definite articles.

Question

Hola , como estas?

i have my spanish exam on wednesday and well i am practising my spanish using this excellent book i bought, anyways in one of the questions that i am doing at the moment, i was confused at the correct answer that it provided, the question was complete the following sentences with the appropriate definite articles, and well its not a hard excercise to do as i have practised it many times, any way the question that i am confused about is this " ---|- periodista escribio ---| articulos para -- periodico
and i wrote in the missing gaps la periodista escribio los articulos para el periodico. the part that i got wrong was the la peridodista. and i am confused as to why because i thought that (ista) or anything that ends with a is feminine.

and ---|- ama de casa esta en ---| cocina. i wrote la ama de casa esta la cocina. the part that igot wrong was the first definite artcile ( la ama) i thought that ama is a feminine noun. and should be followed by a feminine article. please tell me why am i wrong.

Answer 1

Thre are over 290 nouns ending in -a that are masculine according to William's Spanish and English Dictionary.
Remember that a feminine word that begins with a stressed a- uses the article el, but in the plural it changes to las.
el águila---|>las águilas
el alma---|>las almas
el arte---|> las artes
If the first a- is not stressed, it is regular.
La arboleda, la ardilla, la tarea, etc.

Answer 2

and i am confused as to why because i thought that (ista) or anything that ends with a is feminine.

That's simply not true. There are any number of masculine nouns in Spanish which end in a.

Answer 3

muchas gracias-

Heidita said:

el ama de casa esta en la cocina

ama is feminine, but takes el to avoid cacofonía, as it starts with an a, same thing happens with "aguila, alma, etc.."

>

Answer 4

el ama de casa esta en la cocina

ama is feminine, but takes el to avoid cacofonía, as it starts with an a, same thing happens with "aguila, alma, etc.."

Answer 5

" el/la periodista escribio los articulos para el periodico

if they marked "la" as wrong...do complain a very sexist correction. Periodista can be feminine or masculine..as there ARE a lot of women in this profession.

Look:
*periodista.

1. com. Persona legalmente autorizada para ejercer el periodismo.*

com: nombre común en cuanto al género = takes both el or la