Spanish Articles: Definite and Indefinite Guide

Spanish Articles

In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. There several rules which help to identify a given object's gender; for example, nouns that end in a - like "manzana" (apple) - are almost always feminine, while nouns that end in o - like "bolígrafo" (pen) - are almost always masculine. (Learn more: Spanish nouns)

To make things even more interesting, each gender has its own set of articles, those little words - the, a, an, some - that essentially introduce a noun and say a little something about it. While in English you can simply apply the same articles - the, a, an, some - to all nouns, in Spanish there are distinctions between masculine and feminine as well as between singular and plural.

Definite Articles / Artículos definidos

Definite articles (“the”) are used when referring to a specific object (for example, the apple or the pen).

• el — masculine singular
  el bolígrafo (the pen)
• los — masculine plural
  los bolígrafos (the pens)
• la — feminine singular
  la manzana (the apple)
• las — feminine plural
  las manzanas (the apples)

Indefinite Articles / Artículos indefinidos

Indefinite articles (“a,” “an,” “some”) refer to non-specific objects (for example, a pen or some apples).

• un — masculine singular (a, an)
  un bolígrafo (a pen)
• unos — masculine plural (some)
  unos bolígrafos (some pens)
• una — feminine singular (a, an)
  una manzana (an apple)
• unas — feminine plural (some)
  unas manzanas (some apples)