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Use of "el" with feminine nouns beginning with a stressed "a"Grammar questions– conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax, etc. |
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#2
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Masculine article is only used for reasons of euphony, but the gender of the word remains unchanged.
"Toda el agua" is correct. El águila calva. -> La hermosa águila. El aula nueva. -> Nuestra aula. El hacha filosa. -> Esta hacha. El hambre canina. -> Tengo mucha hambre.
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#3
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Yes, 'toda el agua' is correct. The adjectives and determiners will agree with the gender of the noun, despite which article is used.
Don't forget that words beginning with 'ha', that are stressed on the initial syllable, are also candidates. el ama el área el hambre However, not all feminine gender words that have a leading 'a' sound follow the 'rule' you're citing. There are some rule breakers. Here are three of them: la a (the letter 'a') la hache (the letter 'h') la árabe (the Arabic woman) |
#4
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...and that's most likely because they're ellipses of the nature of those words:
![]() la (letra) a la (letra) hache la (mujer) árabe
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#5
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Use of "el" with feminine nouns . . .
The "el" in noun phrases like "el águila" is derived from the Latin feminine pronoun "illa" which in Vulgar Latin was turning into a definite article. So in phrases such as "illa aquila" the two a's simply coalesced.
Last edited by Rusty; February 03, 2012 at 12:25 AM. Reason: removed inaccurate information |
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