How Do You Use “El” With Spanish “A” Final Nouns?
One of the major challenges for native English speaking learners of Spanish is choosing the correct definite article for cases of irregular gender. For example, students learn that “el” goes with nouns that end in “o” and “la” goes with nouns that end in “a.” However, sometimes “el” goes with words that end in “a,” i.e. el agua (water), el asta (flagpole), el arma (weapon) etc. There is a systematic reason why this happens which relies on the word stress of the noun. Notice if the first letter of the word is “a”. If the first letter of the word begins with “a” then it is highly possible that the article will be “el,” i.e. arma, ala (wing), ama (owner)etc. Notice the word stress. If the word begins with an “a” and the word stress is on the “a” then the article will be “el,” i.e. el agua, el asta, arpa (harp) etc. Retain the gender. Although the “la” is converted to “el” it still remains feminine. For example, the cold water is translated as “El agua fría” where the final vowel of the ad
