Why is it La Leche and not El Leche?
Leche is a feminine noun, therefore it needs the feminine article (la) not the masculine article (el).
Third person pronouns also have to match the gender of the nouns they are replacing, but that's another story. So, you need to know that leche, red, serpiente, or razón are feminine, and that problema, atlas, tema, or postre are masculine. Therefore, you can say: la leche, aquella red, una serpiente, mucha razón…
The reason is simpler than you think. 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.
Many words in Spanish have a fixed arbitrary gender, which is also called grammatical gender. This is true for all things: el pan (bread), la leche (milk). Most animals follow this rule: el camello (camel), la jirafa (giraffe).
The general rule is that if a noun ends with an -a, it's feminine. For example, la manzana, meaning "the apple," la ventana, "the window," and la casa, "the house." Nouns that end with an -o are generally masculine, like el horno, "the oven," el perro, "the dog," and el libro, "the book."
We use the article El for a masculine noun and La for a feminine noun. If a word ends with another letter, for example Mujer or País, it can be both.
- La leche (The milk)
Feminine nouns that end with “e” (exceptions): The street – La calle. The meat – La carne.
Certain nouns that begin with “A” are pronounced with a “tonic” or stressed “A” sound. When these nouns are feminine, it's too difficult to pronounce two of these “A” sounds in a row. In these cases, el is used for the singular, but las is used for the plural. El águila nació.
Mass or non-count nouns (such as frost, fog, water, love) are called neuter because they select the pronoun it. Count nouns divide into masculine and feminine. Female humans and most female animals, as well as all types of vehicles (land, air and sea) are feminine, in that they select the pronouns she, her.
Does Spanish have gendered words?
The first thing to take into account is that nouns in Spanish have a gender: feminine or masculine, but they can also be singular or plural. So every word for a person, place, thing or idea is either masculine or feminine.
Spanish mostly comes from Latin, which also has genders (three, actually), so a lot of these genders have just been passed on from Latin or other languages that have influenced Spanish over the centuries. We could say some of these genders make more sense than others.
Answer and Explanation:
In this case, the plural form of el is los. So el pupitre becomes los pupitres in the plural.
- If a noun refers to a male person it will be masculine, if it refers to a female person it will be feminine.
- Nouns with these endings will (generally) be masculine: -age. -ment. -il, -ail, -eil, -ueil. ...
- Nouns with these endings will (generally) be feminine:
La fruta = Fruta = Fruit. El fruto = The fruit.
However, the way to say “house” in Italian is casa and it is a feminine noun.
Because it is a feminine noun. The obvious implication of your question is, "Why is the word carne feminine rather than masculine?" Should this be taken to suggest that you believe that perhaps there is some sort of underlying logic dictating the classification of nouns into the masculine and feminine genders?
As long as there are mothers and babies, La Leche League will have a place in Canada. The name “La Leche” (pronounced La Lay-chay) means “the milk” in Spanish, and was adopted in part because the word “breastfeeding” was not acceptable at the time.
La Leche League International (LLLI) (Spanish: La Leche, lit. 'the milk') is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that organizes advocacy, education, and training related to breastfeeding. It is present in about 89 countries.
in spanish, milk if feminine, so it's "la leche". in portuguese and italian, it's masculine with "o leite" and "il latte" respectively, despite all being descended from latin.
Is it El or La Chocolate?
The word 'chocolate' is masculine in Spanish. Therefore, it is 'el chocolate' in singular and 'los chocolates' in plural. For example: 'El chocolate está en la nevera' (The chocolate is in the fridge)
La luna (the moon), el sol (the sun), noche (night), dia (day).
The Spanish noun café (pronounced: kah-FEH), which means 'coffee,' is masculine, so it must be used with the masculine articles el ('the') or un ('a').
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.
It´s just a tendency in Spanish to avoid two similar sounds together. “La agua” would join two a´s in something perceived generally as awkward by native speakers, hence “el agua”. “El agua” is still feminine. Same goes for “el área-las áreas” and “el águila-las águilas”.
