apuntes 9

Nouns (sustantivos) Nouns are people, places, things, animals, and ideas.
Gender, and Number-Review All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine  Feminine
El chico     La chica
El libro       La hoja

All nouns in Spanish are either singular or plural.

Singular    Plural
El libro      Los libros

How do I know if a noun is masculine or feminine?

**Remember exceptions

 Usually if a noun ends in an
 –a it‘s feminine
 –o it’s masculine

-ma words are masculine
 el problema
-dad words are feminine 
la universidad

You can also tell gender by looking at the article el/un/los/unos-masculine
la/una/las/unas-feminine
What’s the definite article in English? “the”
The boy 
The cookie
What are the indefinite articles in English? “a” “an” “some”
a book
an apple
some cookies
What’s the difference? Imagine a plate full of cookies. There are peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and one chocolate chip cookie. 

Give me “THE” chocolate chip cookie.
speaks of a particular (or definite) cookie

Give me “A” cookie.
speaks of any of a number of cookies (or an indefinite cookie)

What are the definite articles in Spanish?  DEFINITE ARTICLES

Singular    Plural
El chico    Los chicos
La chica   Las chicas

El chico es guapo.
The boy is cute.

Las chicas son bonitas.
The girls are pretty.

What are the indefinite articles in Spanish? INDEFINITE ARTICLES Singular      Plural
Un chico     Unos chicos
Una chica   Unas chicas

Unos chicos son altos
Some boys are tall.

Any difference in English and Spanish? In English articles do not change.

In Spanish, definite and indefinite articles and nouns must match in gender and number.