Is agua Masculine or Feminine in Spanish? Spanish Blog 365 (2024)

Is agua masculine or feminine in Spanish?

Is this correct? – El agua pura

Post 193/365
Es jueves, 5 de octubre de 2017

Hello and thanks for stopping by Spanish Blog 365 today.

This week we are learning a series of mini, stand-alone grammar topics. We started with…

sino and sino que

and

special uses with the word ¡Qué…!

Today we’ll continue with an important note on something similar to ‘an apple‘ in English.

1.
Say ‘a apple‘.

Notice how hard it is to pronounce the two ‘a’ sounds side-by-side?

In English when that occurs we break the two vowel sounds with a consonant, ‘an apple’.

That’s easier to say!

2.
The same thing occurs in Spanish. Say this: la agua

That’s hard to say!

Agua is feminine, however, because of this pronunciation issue with the two vowels side-by-side, it’s actually ‘el agua‘.

Since it is truly feminine, the phrase ‘el agua pura‘ is correct. Pura needs to be in the feminine form because agua is feminine, but you’ll use to masculine article el to break the double vowels.

el agua fría

3.
When it’s in the plural plural form, no problem! Las aguas

The word las has the consonant that breaks the double vowel sound.

Las aguas frías

4.
The same rule applies with the indefinite articles

una agua is too hard to say, so it’s un agua, but unas aguas

masculine or feminine in Spanish?

5.
This happens with any word that:

is feminine and begins with an ‘a’ and the first syllable is stressed

el ala – the wing
el alma – the soul
el agua – the water
el áquila – eagle
el área – the area

but…

la acción – the first syllable is not stressed so it’s not so hard to pronounce the double ‘a’ sound.
la asistencia – again the first syllable is not stressed.

or that starts with an ‘h’ and is feminine and the first syllable is stressed.

el hada – the fairy (like TinkerBell)
el hache – the letter ‘h‘. All letters are feminine in Spanish, but it’s hard to say ‘la hache’

Action steps: Go back and make all of the above words plural using ‘las‘ and hear the difference. Also, note that any adjective describing one of these words will be in the feminine form.

Leave me a comment, let me know how your Spanish is coming along and what questions you may have. I’d love to hear from you!

Gracias y hasta mañana,
Carolina

Is agua Masculine or Feminine in Spanish? Spanish Blog 365 (2024)

FAQs

Is agua masculine or feminine in Spanish? ›

Since the term Agua is a feminine noun, if it is followed by an adjective, it must also end in feminine: pure Agua. The feminine indefinite article, a, is usually changed by the masculine, a, as long as no other word intervenes: a pure Agua.

Is it el agua or la? ›

Every time a feminine word starts with the letter a with a strong accent, the preceding article is masculine. So, feminine words beginning with a strong a like agua, águila, área, hacha, and alma will use the article el.

What article goes with agua? ›

Is agua a feminine or masculine word? The answer is very easy. In front of the feminine names that begin with tonic vowel (the one with the accent) the article is used: El agua to avoid cacophony (sound ugly;)).

How do you determine if a Spanish word is feminine or masculine? ›

To recognize gender in Spanish nouns, examine the ending of the noun: most nouns ending in -o are masculine (hermano, "brother"; libro, "book"), and those ending in -a are feminine (hermana, "sister"; taza, "cup").

Is it Una or un agua? ›

Agua is a feminine noun. Feminine nouns beginning with a stressed "a" sound - like agua, águila, and hache - take "el" instead of "la", but use "las" in the plural. This avoids the running together of the a in la and the a beginning the word to follow. People use "el/un agua" because "la/una agua" is so hard to say.

What does agua mean in? ›

Agua means water in Spanish.

Can you say "el agua"? ›

The word 'agua' is indeed feminine, although we use the masculine article 'el' with it to avoid something called cacophony, which basically means it sounds bad or uncomfortable if we use 'la'.

Is Las Aguas correct? ›

agua is a feminine word nevertheless, so las aguas is correct and easy to say.

Is it el agua or la agua duolingo? ›

Nouns that begin with a stressed a – such as alma, arma and agua – always use el, even though they are feminine.)

Why is it el águila? ›

Águila is a feminine noun, so the adjective calvo/a agrees with it. However, it starts with a stressed a, so we use the article el.

Is mano masculine or feminine? ›

But there are plenty of exceptions to this gender rule, of which the two best known are mano, the word for hand, which is feminine, and día, the word for day, which is masculine.

Why is agua masculine? ›

Agua is always feminine, but it uses the masculine article in the singular because it begins with the letter A and the first syllable is accented, and if it were preceded by la it would sound like lagua. It is feminine even when it uses a masculine article, and any adjectives that modify it must always be feminine.

How do you know if a word is masculine or feminine? ›

How do I know whether a word is masculine or feminine?
  1. If a noun refers to a male person it will be masculine, if it refers to a female person it will be feminine.
  2. Nouns with these endings will (generally) be masculine: -age. -ment. -il, -ail, -eil, -ueil. ...
  3. Nouns with these endings will (generally) be feminine:

When to use feminine in Spanish? ›

6 Easy-to-Remember Gender Rules for Mastering Spanish Grammar
  1. Nouns that end in “o” are usually masculine.
  2. Nouns that end in “a” are usually feminine.
  3. Some nouns break the “o” and “a” rules.
  4. Nouns that end in “dad,” “tud,” “sión,” or “ción” are feminine.
  5. Nouns that end in “ama” or “ema” are often masculine.
Jun 28, 2023

Why el agua and las aguas? ›

Agua is always feminine, even in singular form. However, to avoid the double 'a' sound in la agua, we use the article el in singular form. In all other respects, agua is still feminine when singular. The same is true for other feminine nouns that begin with a stressed 'a'.

Is drink masculine or feminine in Spanish? ›

Beber = to drink. Verbs don't have genders. La bebida ( noun ) = drink ( feminine noun ).

Is ocean feminine or masculine in Spanish? ›

Names of rivers, lakes and oceans are masculine because el río, el lago and el océano, respectively, are masculine. Names of mountains are usually masculine, because el monte (mountain) is masculine. An exception is that the Rockies are usually referred to as las Rocosas or las Montañas Rocosas.

Is it Mucha agua or Mucho agua? ›

It changes depending on the gender of the noun. For example, you would say mucho dinero because dinero(money) is masculine; but you would say *mucha agua as agua (water) is femenine.

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