In English and Spanish we use articles before noun phrases.
BUT in Spanish words can be masculine or feminine so we have to choose
un ... una for 1 thing
el....la....los....las to mean "the".
We have to learn if a word is masculine or feminine first. There are some rules.
1. Rule #1
Most words that end in -o are masculine. (Exception: la foto, la mano, la radio)
Most words that end in -a are feminine. (Exception: words from Greek that end in -a or -ma are masculine.)
BUT in Spanish words can be masculine or feminine so we have to choose
un ... una for 1 thing
el....la....los....las to mean "the".
We have to learn if a word is masculine or feminine first. There are some rules.
1. Rule #1
Most words that end in -o are masculine. (Exception: la foto, la mano, la radio)
Most words that end in -a are feminine. (Exception: words from Greek that end in -a or -ma are masculine.)
#2 Word that end in -cion, -sion, -dad, -tad, or tud are feminine.
Rule #3: -ista and -nte can be masculine or feminine. It depends on the person. (These suffixes mean "a person who..."
Examples:
El artista (man) La artista (woman)
El gerente (man) La gerente (woman)
Exception: El presidente (man) La presidenta (woman)
Examples:
El artista (man) La artista (woman)
El gerente (man) La gerente (woman)
Exception: El presidente (man) La presidenta (woman)