Masculine Demonstrative Adjectives Prior to a Stressed 'a' Sound

[deandddd]

Members of the forum!

Me gots another question ... (I teach English, cheap!)

# ;^ )

I have seen the demonstrative treated as an ariticle before a word that begins with an accented "a".

E.g. "esse agua" , as we do with "el agua". Is this correct?

A gallego was talking, from Galicia.

Dean

[Rusty]

It is not correct to use a masculine demonstrative adjective prior to a feminine noun (when its first syllable is stressed and it begins with 'a' or 'ha').

esta agua (not este)
esa agua (not ese)

[deandddd]

Rusty,

Thank you.

Silopanna/Dean

[Tomisimo]

I agree with Rusty. For me, the easiest way to think of this is that "agua" is feminine, but solely for ease of pronunciation it uses the masculine article in the singluar only. Any other article, demonstrative, or adjective will be feminine. So:


el agua, but las aguas, esa agua, esta agua, aquella agua
el águila, but las águilas, esa águila, esta águila, aquella águila