miércoles, 10 de junio de 2009

Naming things - The Articles

When you name things you use the for everything, in spanish you have four articles depending on

  • Genre
  • Number
  1. La: Femenine-Singular
  2. Las: Femenine-Plural
  3. El: Masculine-Singular
  4. Los: Masculine-Plural

Listen some examples.




As general rule (with lot of exceptions) if the last sillabe of any has an A it is Femenine and if it has an O is masculine. Like what happens with most names. The most obvious exceptions are words beginning in A, that you should use the masculine article to avoid cacophony. ej. El Agua (The water) El águila (the eagle)  

Some more tips on pronunciation..

the R at beginnings of words, and double R (RR) are strong, when a single R is in the middle of the word  is much softer. In the Strong R the tongue bounces a couple of times on your hard palate, the soft R is the same but without the bouncing :). you have some examples on the months' video. (Noviembre, Diciembre)

the CH together used to be the fourth letter of the alpabeth when I did my primary school, but like the LL both were removed. Don't know how to describe it but you have and example on the video or probably heard about Che Guevara :P

1 comentario:

  1. This is a pretty detailed and nice lesson. Knowing the singular and plural usage is important if one wishes to speak proper Spanish. That's the reason online Spanish lessons are more convenient compared to conventional Spanish classes.

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