un chico
una chica
una maestra (un maestro)
un amigo una amiga
un hombre una mujer
How to determine gender • Nouns that refer to males are masculine and to females are feminine. – ex: un hombre; una mujer • Most nouns that end in "‐o" are masculine
un alumno
una alumna
How to determine gender • Most nouns that end in "‐a" are feminine – ex: una chica, una alumna • Some nouns have the same form – ex: un estudiante; una estudiante
– ex: un chico, un alumno
Definite Articles
• DEFINITE articles are used with nouns to indicate SPECIFIC persons, places or things. In English ‐‐ "THE"
>
THE boy is from Mexico.
>
I ate THE apples.
Definite Articles
• In English "THE"
EL
LA
el chico ‐ the boy
la chica ‐ the girl
LOS
LAS
los chicos ‐ the boys
las chicas ‐ the girls
Agreement of articles
• In Spanish, articles MUST match (or agree) with the noun in both GENDER and NUMBER: >
Los libros son para la maestra.
>
The books are for the teacher.
• To make a noun plural, most of the time you add "‐s" >
if noun ends in consonant, add "‐es"
>
ex: estudiante ‐‐ estudiantes / mujer ‐‐ mujeres
Indefinite Articles • In English "A", "AN", "SOME"
UN
UNA
un chico ‐ a boy
una chica ‐ a girl
UNOS
UNAS
unos chicos ‐ some boys unas chicas ‐ some girls
Indefinite Articles
• INDEFINITE articles are used with nouns to indicate NONSPECIFIC persons, places or things. English ‐‐ A, An, Some
>
There is A girl.
>
I ate AN apple. / I ate SOME apples.
