Thread: La -vs- Ella
View Single Post
  #4  
Old January 17, 2011, 11:01 AM
Perikles's Avatar
Perikles Perikles is offline
Diamond
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Tenerife
Posts: 4,814
Native Language: Inglés
Perikles is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vonderbach View Post
Thank you Perikles! So the article and pronoun for masculine are the same?

Él nino come = The boy eats
Él come = He eats

Correct?
Well, not correct really, the difference being the accent (which is there to specify the difference)

definite artice the is el, la or lo depending on gender
personal pronoun: él

Because the verb ending tells you exactly who (say) is eating, Spanish omits the personal pronoun because it is often unnecessary.

So: (el) come he eats
el niño come the boy eats

But if you were emphasing that he was eating but she wasn't, then: él come

As for accents, I think it correct that they are very important because they are there to avoid ambiguity between words otherwise identical. In addition, they tell you how a word is pronounced.
Reply With Quote