Nouns and Articles

Overview: Nouns

1. Noun = person, place, thing

2. Gender

  • All nouns are either masculine or feminine.
  • Very often masculine nouns end in O and feminine nouns end in A.
  • Some nouns can be either gender and keep the same meaning.
  • Some nouns can be either gender and change meaning.
  • Nouns that represent people can be either gender. Sometimes they change to reflect the gender.

3. Pluralize a noun

  • ends in vowel -> add S
  • ends in consonant -> add ES
  • ends in Z -> change Z to C and add ES
  • some nouns have no plural form

Overview: Definite Articles

singular plural
masculine el los
feminine la las
  • Equivalent to “the”
  • Change la to el when first syllable is A or HA and is stressed.
    • e.g. el agua, el hacha, el águila
  • Contractions
    • A + EL = AL
    • DE + El = DEL

Overview: Indefinite Articles

singular plural
masculine un unos
feminine una unas
  • Equivalent to a, an, some
  • Can be dropped with unmodified noun after ser
    • e.g. Soy estudiante.

Tutorial: Nouns and Definite Articles

Practice Quiz: Nouns and Definite Articles, Singular to Plural

Nouns and Definite Articles, Singular to Plural

Make the phrase plural.

Tutorial: The Contractions AL and DEL

Tutorial: Indefinite Articles

Practice Quiz: Nouns Indefinite Articles, Singular to Plural

Nouns and Indefinite Articles: Singular to Plural

Make the phrases plural.