Spanish Articles and Determiners

Articles are the small words placed before a noun to show whether it is specific or general. Spanish has both definite and indefinite articles, and each must agree with its noun in gender and number. Determiners is the wider category that includes articles along with demonstratives, possessives and quantifiers.

The Definite and Indefinite Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Masculine singular	el	un
Feminine singular	la	una
Masculine plural	los	unos
Feminine plural	las	unas

The definite article (the) points to a specific, known thing, as in el libro (the book). The indefinite article (a, an, some) introduces something new or unspecified, as in un libro (a book). Both change form to match the noun, so a feminine plural noun takes las or unas.

The Contractions Al and Del

Spanish has just two contractions, and both are compulsory. When the preposition a or de is followed by the masculine singular article el, the two combine:

• a + el becomes al: Voy al cine. → I'm going to the cinema.
• de + el becomes del: Vengo del trabajo. → I'm coming from work.

These contractions happen only with el. The other articles (la, los, las) never contract, and neither does the pronoun él (he), which keeps its accent.

Using and Omitting Articles

Spanish uses the definite article more often than English. It appears before nouns used in a general sense (Me gusta el café, I like coffee), before days of the week (el lunes, on Monday), and before most titles when talking about someone (el señor García). It is usually dropped, however, before an unmodified profession after ser, as in Soy profesor (I am a teacher), where English would use "a".

Other Determiners

Beyond articles, the main determiners are demonstratives, which point to things by distance (este, ese, aquel), possessives, which show ownership (mi, tu, su), and quantifiers, which express amount (mucho, poco, todo). Like articles, they agree with the noun they accompany. Demonstratives are covered in full on their own page.