You just have to learn them! Posted by Adir on Mar 24, 2009 in Spanish Grammar, Spanish Vocabulary
OK, so your Spanish teacher taught you that basically words ending in -a take the article “la” and words ending in -o take the article “el”. Right? Not quite. There are words that defy categorization and there is no magic way to learn them other than study and remember their gender. Here’s a little list:
el acorde – chord
el problema – problem
el barniz – varnish
el cobre – copper
el cometa – comet
el mueble – piece of furniture
el pez – fish (living)
el pie – foot
el reloj – clock, wristwatch
el sauce – willow
el taller – workshop
el yate – yacht
la cruz – cross
la flor – flower
la frente – forehead
la gripe – influenza, the flu
la leche – milk
la nave -spaceshift, depot
la nieve – snow
la tos – cough
la ubre – udder
la mano – hand
el sofá – sofa
el tema – theme, topic
la radio – radio
See you next time!
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About the Author: Adir
English / Spanish teacher and translator for over 20 years. I have been blogging since 2007 and I am also a professional singer in my spare time.
Comments:
Joop Duijf:
Recently I joined the blog and I have to say I enjoy it. I hope to pick up bits and pieces every time to improve my little knowledge of Spanish.
I would like to make a remark re Spanish Articles about the ‘to be expected’ gender.
I think one has to be careful as some articles can be ‘el’ or ‘la’ depending on there meaning!
E.g. la radio = the radio however
el radio = the radius or spoke even in South America the radio is EL radio
el cometa = comet
la cometa = kite
I presume these are not the only ones.
I hope this is a help.
Joop
david carmona:
You are right. We posted an article on that topic a few months ago, with several examples. You can search for the article called “Gorra o gorro?”, or look at the December 2008 archive.