Have you ever wondered why there are some feminine nouns that use the masculine definite article el? You may be thinking of examples like el agua, el hambre or el aula.
You probably already know that when it comes to grammatical gender in Spanish, nouns can either be masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns use the word el to mean “the” in the singular form, while feminine nouns typically use la. So, what is happening with words like el agua?
The Coffee Break Spanish Show is a podcast series of bite-sized, friendly conversations in which we demystify tricky Spanish language topics. In the latest episode, Mark and Anabel look at a selection of words that take the article el despite actually being feminine nouns. By the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how to use these nouns with any article or adjective, and see that it’s not as complicated as it may seem at first!
Continue reading to find out more and why not listen to the podcast as you go?
Is ‘agua’ masculine or feminine?
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to noun gender in Spanish comes with words like agua (“water”), hambre (“hunger”), or aula (“classroom”) – some of the first words you may learn in the language!
You have probably learned to write el agua, el hambre and el aula, and you are not wrong! The issue comes when you assume they are masculine nouns or they always use masculine articles, because that’s not the case.
¿Qué está pasando entonces? Feminine nouns starting with a stressed a sound follow some very special rules.
When a feminine singular noun starts with a stressed a, we use el, un, algún and ningún before them.
For example:
el agua
the water
un agua
a water
algún agua
some water
ningún agua
no water
When the noun is in its plural form, we use the feminine form of the article.
For example:
las aguas
the waters
unas aguas
a few waters
algunas aguas
some waters
ningunas aguas
no waters
It’s important to keep in mind that we only use the masculine form with these nouns when we use el, un, algún and ningún before the noun. As you can see, we use the feminine form of the articles when using the plural form.
Take a look at these further examples and notice that esta, mucha and nuestra are in their feminine singular form – back to what you would expect with a feminine noun like agua.
esta agua
this water
mucha agua
a lot of water
nuestra agua
our water
¡Ojo! If we want to say “all the water”, it should be toda el agua, where the feminine form is used in toda, but we keep the masculine article el.
Indeed, when this type of noun is combined with an adjective, the adjective agrees in gender with the noun, even when using a masculine article. For example:
el agua fría
the cold water
However, if we move the adjective before the noun, then we have:
la fría agua
the cold water
In summary, el agua, el hambre and el aula might look like masculine nouns at first, but it is only to help pronunciation – in reality, they are all feminine nouns. The best way to get your head around this is to put it into practice.
Let’s practise!
Translate the following phrases into Spanish. For each one, we’ve given you the noun in brackets. You can find the answers and an explanation at the end of this article.
- open area (área)
- the bald eagle (águila)
- some white wing (ala)
- the best water (agua)
- the small classroom (use aulita (aula + ita) for “small classroom”)
Conclusion and answers
If you found this post interesting, make sure to listen to the full episode with Mark and Anabel on The Coffee Break Spanish Show. In this series of chats between our language experts, we look at a range of topics for Spanish learners, so make sure to subscribe to our podcast feed and our channel on YouTube.
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Finally, remember that when it comes to noun gender, while it’s useful to learn the rules and can help to give you more confidence when speaking, you’ll be easily understood even if you make mistakes!
We’ll be back soon with another interesting Spanish language topic. Until then, happy Coffee Breaking!
PS. Here are the answers to the challenges:
- open area (área) – área abierta
Área is a feminine noun. - the bald eagle (águila) – el águila calva
Águila is a feminine noun, so the adjective calvo/a agrees with it. However, it starts with a stressed a, so we use the article el. - some white wing (ala) – algún ala blanca
The same applies here as in the previous example. However, we can also say alguna blanca ala. Since the adjective goes before the noun in this case, the article doesn’t change. - the best water (agua) – la mejor agua
The adjective mejor always goes before the noun. Since the adjective goes before the noun, the article remains as la, rather than el. - the small classroom (aulita) – la aulita
Aulita now has the stress on the syllable –li-, so it doesn’t start with a stressed a, meaning that it doesn’t need a different article. Other options could have been: el aula pequeña or la pequeña aula.
