Definite articles in Spanish indicate a specific noun and agree with the noun's gender and number. Every Spanish noun is either masculine or feminine. The definite articles are el for masculine singular nouns, los for masculine plural nouns, la for feminine singular nouns, and las for feminine plural nouns. Spanish and other Romance languages have gendered nouns, which English does not, as they originated from Latin.

1. LOS ARTÍCULOS
DEFINIDOS

2. What are definite articles?
• Definite articles are used to
point out a particular person,
place or thing.
• They are the equivalent of the
in English.

3. There Are Four Spanish Definite
Articles:
• el
• la
• los
• las

4. Before we move on...

5. Spanish is actually the “daughter” of another
language. Her “mother” language is Latin. Spanish is
called a “romance language”, because it comes from
Latin and Latin was spoken in Rome. The other
Western romance languages are Italian, Portuguese,
French and Catalan (spoken in a region of Spain.)
What is a major element that all nouns have in these
romance languages that they do not have in English?

6. gender

7. Every noun in Spanish has gender.
Every noun is either “masculine” or
“feminine”...even inanimate objects.
Is a house more feminine than a road ?
No, the object is not, but the word is.
the house = la casa
the road = el camino

8. Which definite article do you use?
• el is used before masculine singular nouns.
• los is used before masculine plural nouns.
• la is used before feminine singular nouns.
• las is used before feminine plural nouns.

9. el caracol
los lagartos
la abeja
las mariposas

10. ¡TE TOCA A TI!
• Now it’s your turn:
• _______muchachos
• los muchachos
• _______hermana
• la hermana
• _______escuelas
• las escuelas
• _______amigo
• el amigo