how do i kno when to use el or la in spanish?

Question

like does its mean if the word ends in a vowel u use la or el and if it ends in acontenent it ends in l or el which one is which and heres and example you culd anser

do u use el or la in front of

boligrafo

carpeta

Answer 1

You use "el" for male substantives and "la" for females.
Usually substantives that end in O are male and those that end in A are female

Answer 2

Amigo,
Usually when a noun ends in --A it is feminine end uses the article -la.When it ends in -O it usually uses --el the masc.article.However there are exceptions. La mano ,el agua, If the first letter of a noun is A then you must use --el in the singular.Nouns with different endings you will have to learn.Some nouns can use either one such as -la mar ,el mar.The sea, both are acceptable.

Answer 3

Words(nouns) in Spanish are given a gender. "La" is the female gender. "El" is the male gender. One common thing about the Spanish language, is, generally, words that end in "o" are preceded with "El"(defined as a male gender word) and words that end in "a" are preceded with "La"(female gender). Roughly, La and El can also be equivalent to the word "the" in the English language.

There are exceptions however: "El agua" may be the most obvious example, but there are others.

There is no method that I know of to determine which words are to be male or female, you just have to know which gender they are and memorize them.

El boligrafo

La carpeta

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/genoun1.htm

Answer 4

It's not as simple as that.

Most of the time......but not always..... words ending in 'a' are feminine and use 'la' and words ending in 'o' are masculine and use 'el'.

But as I said, it's NOT a general rule. Many words end in 'a' and are masculine "el programa" (the program), and viceversa "la mano" (the hand).

Some end in a consonant and there's no way to know, you just have to memorize them: "el lápiz" (the pencil) - "la canción" (the song)

Some are feminine but use 'el': "el agua" (the water - "el águila" (the eagle)

Some can be used with both articles: "el mar" - "la mar" (both mean the sea.)

Some use the same word but the article determines the meaning: "el cólera" (the cholera) - "la cólera" (the anger).
.

Answer 5

el boligrafo

la carpeta

an easy way to tell is if the word ends in an "o" you use "el"
if the word ends in "a" you use "la"
it has to do with whether the word is masculine or feminine
"el" is the masculine form of the
"la" is the feminine for of the
thats an easy way to determine it. the rest you just need to know if the word is masculine or feminine.

Answer 6

You have enough answers now.
But I will answer anyway.

EL is for males, in spanish usually that words ends with O,
LA is for females, in spanish usually words ended with A.

There are very few exceptions to that rule:
El agua (the water),
La mano (the hand).

Answer 7

I believe you use el in front of boligrafo because it ends in a "o" which is masculine, and you put la in front of carpeta because it ends in "a" so its feminine, everything in spanish is either masculine or feminine thats how you know when to use el or la. hope that helps

Answer 8

el for masculine

la for feminine

There is no complete rule - you have to learn.

One useful clue is that most words ending in -o are masculine and -a are feminine, so

its el boligrafo

la carpeta

Answer 9

to use el or la depends on if the verb is maslin or feminin like for carpeta it would be la carpeta cause the a is feminin

Answer 10

El boligrafo, la carpeta. El es lindo y ell es fea. El is for he and ella is for her. In spanish it's kind of confusing, but I know you get it once you start learning and speaking in spanish.