Spanish Definite Article and Indefinite Article
The tiny but mighty definite article and indefinite article are found in almost every Spanish sentence you say, hear, and read. This lesson will give you all you need to know about the articles.
Look for this Speaker Icon -- 
-- in the lesson below to hear important words for understanding the concepts presented. The words are recorded by a native speaker of Spanish and listening to the sound files will give you the precise Spanish accent and pronunciation you need to know.
The Article in Parts of Speech
Articles (in the Spanish parts of speech) are the words that come before nouns -- In English the articles are a, an, the. These words correspond to Spanish articles un, una, el, and la.
In Spanish, the articles are said to agree with the nouns they come before in gender and number. That is to say, feminine articles go in front of feminine nouns and masculine articles come before masculine nouns. Likewise, singular articles are used with singular nouns and plural articles must be used before plural nouns.
Definite Article
The definite articles in Spanish are el and la with the plural forms being los and las.
Here are some examples: (just click on the words to hear them.)
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| el libro |
the book |
| los libros |
the books |
| la mesa |
the table |
| las mesas |
the tables |
Indefinite Article
The indefinite article is the word used to say a, an, some, or a few. In Spanish the words used to accomplish this are un, una, unos, and unas. Agian, there is gender and number agreement as shown below.
Here are some examples: (just click on the words to hear them.)
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| un libro |
a book |
| unos libros |
some books |
| una mesa |
a table |
| unas mesas |
some tables |
Notes on Definite Article and Indefinite Article
When using the 2 Spanish words for "from the" -- de el -- you will shorten these two words into one word. This is similar to the way contractions are used in English, but without the apostrophe. For example, to say the phrase "I come from the bank" in Spanish, you don't say "vengo de el banco". This is sort of correct in a literal sense but would sound very strange to a native Spanish user. The correct way to say it is "vengo del banco". Notice how the 2 words de and el get shortened, or contracted, into one word del.
Important Additional Usage Note: The contraction of de and el is only used in the masculine definite article el and not the feminine definite article la. In other words if the example sentence had been "I come from the store" it would be inappropriate to use a contracted form. So the translation of the second example sentence has to be "vengo de la tienda". This rule becomes second nature with a little practice reading and listening to Spanish being spoken.
In order to make it clear that you have only one of something, use the word solamente like this:
- I have only 1 child -- tengo solamente un niño.
- The indefinite article is left out in some cases.
- A hundred dollars -- cien dólares
- I am a writer -- soy escritor
- do you have a pen? -- ¿tienes pluma?