Eastfield College -- Some Rules

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Some Rules

Articles – el (male singular) la (female singular), los (male plural), las (female plural)

El is used before the singular masculine nouns (el coche, el libro.) Los is used before plural masculine nouns (los coches, los libros)

La is used before singular feminine nouns (la silla, la ciudad.) Las is used for plural feminine nouns (las sillas, las ciudades).

Nouns ending in –o are generally masculine
Nouns ending in –a are generally feminine…..However there are exceptions:

Nouns denoting male beings are always masculine. Those denoting female beings are always feminine (a man - un hombre; a woman - una mujer).

Nouns ending in –ma, -ta, -pa are also masculine (mapa, clima, tema)
Nouns ending in – ión, -ción, –sión and –umbre, are feminine (ciudad, lección, dumbre)

For reasons of euphony, the article el is used instead of la, singular form before all feminine words ending with an a or ha (el agua, el hada). However, in the plural form, the normal feminine article las is used (las aguas, las hadas)

Capitalaization

Do not capitalize	days of the week	months	seasons	languages	nationalities
	don and doña nor señor and señora unless they are at the beginning of the sentence. However, Sr. and Sra. used with the last name are capitalized.
Do capitalize	Names of countries, states, titles

Ordinal numbers

As with uno, the word primero and tercero, drop the final –o when used before a singular masculine noun (Estoy in el primer (tercer) año.)(I am in the first (third) year.)

1st	primero/a	6th	sexto/a
2nd	segundo/a	7th	séptim/a
3rd	tercero/a	8th	octavo/a
4th	cuarto/a	9th	noveno/a
5th	quinto/a	10th	décimo/a

Persona is a feminine word when it refers to a man or woman.
(El hombre está el sexto persona en la línea.) (The man is the sixth person in the line.)

Sentence Structure

In a statement, the subject goes before the verb:       Pedro tiene un perro grande.
In a question, the verb goes in front of the subject: ¿Tiene un perro grande, Pedro?
Sentence structure: Article – noun – adjective – verb –    final dependent phrase
La        casa       blanca       está            en Washington, DC
The       house     white        is located    in Washington, DC

Hester Chamberlain
Learning Assistance Center
Eastfield College