Hola!
Yo soy Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie, fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who
speaks your language.
So far we’ve talked about four forms of nouns.
And don’t worry--there’s no more to go over.
But we’ve never listed them all together all in one place.
So let’s do that now.
There’s singular male, singular female, plural male, and plural female.
So we can have “chico”, “chica”, “chicos”, or “chicas”.
Now that we know all four forms of a noun, we can start to talk about those other “ramifications”
I mentioned in the video called The Sexualization of Nouns.
Remember, the form of the noun affects the form of other words in the sentence because
they all have to match.
Today, we’re just going to focus on two of those ramifications--the two most common
ones--definite and indefinite articles.
Okay, we kind of touched on this in The Sexualization of Nouns video... in Spanish the word “the”
has to match the noun.
So “boy” is “chico” but “the boy” is “el chico”.
Remember that?
“El” is “the” for singular, masculine nouns.
But to say “the girl” we use “la” instead of “el” so it’s “la chica”.
That should be familiar to you already.
But since then, we’ve gone on to learn the Plural Forms of Nouns.
So more than one “boy” is “chicos”.
What I didn’t teach you is the plural forms of “the”.
The masculine, plural form of “the” in Spanish is “los”.
So “the boys” would be “los chicos”.
Going the other way, the plural, female form of “the” in Spanish is “las”.
So “the girls” would be “las chicas”.
Bottom line, the word “the” actually has four different translations in Spanish: “el”,
“la”, “los” and “las”.
Which one you use depends entirely on the form of the noun--it has to match exactly.
There are no exceptions to that.
Okay, so what about those weird words I used in the opening of this video?
Definite and Indefinite Articles?
Well, “the” is a definite article.
And the word “a” or “an” is an indefinite article.
In a past lesson, you learned that “apple” is “manzana”.
Apple is feminine.
So “the apple” is “la manzana” and “the apples” is “las manzanas”.
If you point to a bowl with only one apple in it, and say “grab the apple” to somebody,
they’d know DEFINITELY which apple you wanted them to grab.
There’s only one apple and furthermore you said “the”.
But now picture a bowl full of apples and you say “grab an apple” to somebody.
They would know that you’re talking about any one of the apples because you said “an”.
So the possibilities are INDEFINITE.
The definite article is “the” and speaks of a specific apple.
The indefinite article is “a” or “an” and speaks of any one of the apples in a group
of apples.
Don’t get too hung up on those terms, they’ll never come into play.
It’s just, using terms makes teaching and learning this stuff easier.
You already know all the definite articles.
“El”, “la”, “los”, and “las” and those all mean “the”.
The indefinite articles work the same way--you have to make them match their noun.
“Un” and “una” means “a” or “an”.
You use “un” for masculine, singular nouns.
“A boy” would be “un chico”.
Then “una” is for feminine, singular nouns.
“A girl” would be “una chica”.
On the plural side of things, we use “unos” and “unas”--you add an OS to “un”
and an S to “una”.
Both “unos” and “unas” basically translate to “a few” or “some”.
“Some boys” or “a few boys” would be “unos chicos”.
“Some girls” or “a few girls” would be “unas chicas”.
Make sense?
See why you shouldn’t focus on those terms Definite and Indefinite, you don’t need
them.
If you want to say “the” you’ll use “el”, “la”, “los” or “las”.
That’s when you’re referring to a specific boy or a specific apple.
If you want to say “a”, “an”, “some” or “a few” you’ll use “un”, “una”,
“unos” or “unas” . Use those words when you don’t want to refer to specific
“boys” or “apples”.
This isn’t hard at all.
Once you practice it a little, it becomes subconscious very quickly.
To help bring that moment forward, I created a little Articles Worksheet for you.
Here’s what I want you to do right now.
I want you to go to gringoespanol.com/articles/ and download the Articles Worksheet I made
for you.
It shouldn’t take very long at all.
If you can do that worksheet successfully, you’ll basically know this material and
will never have to worry about it again.
The Answer Key is also located at gringoespanol.com/articles/.
So go there now, do the worksheet then call a friend and tell them how awesome these videos
are.
Or you can just click the LIKE button or the big thumbs up.
Oh yeah, and you know I’m gonna have to start doubling up on colors, right?
They only make so many of these....
See ya next time!
Hasta luego!