El artículo definido e indefinido

 

Spanish, like English, has two types of articles: definite and indefinite. The definite article (equivalent to “the”) is used to:

refer to something/someone who is known/familiar/specific:

or, to refer to something which is considered to be general rather than particular or specific, as in:

The indefinite article, which means “a/an,” refers to something which is not known, or to something that is indifferent to the speaker.

The definite and indefinite articles must agree with the noun in both gender and number.

artículos definidos

singular plural
masculino Play Audio el Play Audio los
femenino Play Audio la Play Audio las

artículos indefinidos

singular plural
masculino Play Audio un Play Audio unos
femenino Play Audio una Play Audio unas

When the masculine singular definite article el directly follows the prepositions a or de in a sentence, a contraction must be formed:

a+el=al

de+el=del

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Spanish I: Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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