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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) refer to a specific object (the apple or the pen). Check out a few examples:

Article - English Article - Spanish Noun - English Noun - Spanish
masculine, singular the elthe pen el bolígrafo
masculine, plural the losthe pens los bolígrafos
feminine, singular the lathe apple la manzana
feminine, plural the lasthe apples las manzanas

Indefinite Articles / Artículos indefinidos

Indefinite articles (a, an, some), on the other hand, refer to an unspecified object (an apple or a pen ).

Article - English Article - Spanish Noun - English Noun - Spanish
masculine, singular a, an una pen un bolígrafo
masculine, plural someunossome pens unos bolígrafos
feminine, singular a, an unaan apple una manzana
feminine, plural someunassome apples unas manzanas
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