El ave Vs la ave

[fglorca]

Correct: El ave es muy grande / Las aves son muy grandes
Incorrect: La ave es muy grande / Los aves son muy grandes

Would this be accurate?
Many thanks in advance.

[poli]

It's an aesthetic choice that became a law. La ave sounds awful, so el ave became the right way to say it despite the fact that ave is a noun that in all other cases takes the female gender article.

[Julvenzor]

Hay una explicación un poco más razonable. Realmente, ése "el" no se considera un artículo masculino sino una variante del femenino. En español antiguo correspondían "ele" para el masculino y "ela" para el femenino. Ante palabras con "a" tónica, "ela" se convertía en "el". Por tanto, se debe a una mera coincidencia formal con el masculino.

Un saludo.

[wrholt]

The forced choice of the feminine singular article "el" before nouns starting with a stressed "a" is analogous to how in English we're forced to choose "an" as the singular indefinite article before a word that starts with a vowel sound. It's also analogous to two other word pairs in Spanish, "and" = "y" in most contexts, but "e" before words that start with the vowel "i", and "or" = "o" in most contexts, but "u" before words that start with the vowel "o".

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree with previous answers; I would only like to add some simplification of the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas:


"La" becomes "el" when it's placed before feminine nouns that start with an a (or ha) and whose first syllable is the stressed one.
- el águila
- el aula
- el hacha

However, if there is any word between the article and the noun, then it must be "la":
- la imponente águila (but "el águila imponente")
- la nueva aula (but "el aula nueva")
- la filosa hacha (but "el hacha filosa")

Notice that the adjectives are always feminine; it's only the article that changes to "el".
- el hada buena (never "el hada bueno")
- el área calculada (never "el área calculado")
- toda el agua (never "todo el agua")

Also, the change is always for nouns, never adjectives:
- la alta casa (not "el alta casa")
- la árida tierra (not "el árida tierra")

And "el" is never placed before a non-stressed "a":
- la autoestima (never "el autoestima")
- la aguilita (not "el aguilita")
- la aguanieve (not "el aguanieve")


We use also "un", "algún" and "ningún" with the feminine words with which we use "el":
- un ánima
- ningún hada
- algún arma

But demonstrative adjectives and words like "poco", "mucho", "otro", etc., are always feminine before these nouns:
- esa águila (not "ese águila")
- esta hacha (not "este hacha")
- poca agua (not "poco agua")
- mucha hambre (not "mucho hambre")
- otra aula (not "otro aula")


Exceptions:
- The name of letter "h": "la hache es muda."
- The greek name of letter "a": "la alfa es la variable de la ecuación."
- The name of letter "a": "la a es la primera letra del alfabeto."
- Women's proper names: "La Alma que yo conozco no diría palabrotas".
- Acronyms: "la AMA es la Asociación de automovilistas Mexicanos."


Geographical names are tricky.
- Continents use "el": "El África", "el Asia".
- Cities and countries use the article according to the gender speakers give to it: "la Ámsterdam antigua", "la Austria que vio nacer a Wittgenstein", "la Australia lejana".