Discover the determined and indeterminate ARTICLES

According to the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (DRAE), the article is a class of word whose main function is to specify whether what is designated by the noun or the nominal group it accompanies is information known in advance or not. Articles in Spanish are divided into two categories: definite and indeterminate articles.

Both categories have in common that they are unstressed words that always precede the name. Throughout this lesson from a PROFESSOR we will explain to you what are the characteristics, uses and typology of determined and indeterminate articles.

To know what are the definite and indeterminate articles We will begin by defining the determined ones and understanding their characteristics. The determined article (or defined) is used to delimit the extension of the noun or the nominal group it accompanies when said expression refers to an entity known by the interlocutors.

The forms of the definite article in Spanish they are the following:

• "El" for masculine singular: Car.
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• "La" for feminine singular: Folder.
• "Los" for masculine plural: I phone them.
• "Las" for feminine plural: Letters.
• "Lo" for neuter nouns: The important thing.

The general uses of the definite or definite article are as follows:

• Information known to both speakers: Give me the car keys ("the keys" is a specific nominal group, since I need those keys, which are those of the car, and not others).
• Unique (and therefore determined) things: The president, the land ...etc.
• Abstract nouns: Love, courage, happiness, doubt... etc.
• With the verb "like" and the like to refer to the totality of something: I love chocolate (all kinds of chocolate), I don't like cheese at all (no kind of cheese, cheese in general).

In addition to these general uses, the definite article is also used to substantiate other kinds of words, especially adjectives. This process is known as substantiation: an example, the adjective "bad" becomes a noun if it is postponed to the article "the" (The bad guy always loses).

In this case, the adjective stops working as such and starts to perform the proper functions of a noun, such as being the subject of a sentence (The class clever knows all the exam questions). Similarly, the neutral article "lo" also substantive adjectives giving it a generic or abstract meaning: "what is beautiful", "what is important", "what is curious"... etc.

In certain constructions, the article "lo" serves to emphasize the meaning of the word or nominal group that it accompanies. Look at the following example: How handsome you are with that tie, where the construction "lo + adjective" enhances the value of the adjective "handsome" ("You are very handsome with that tie").

The indeterminate article (or indefinite) indicates that the noun or nominal group it precedes provides information not known to the interlocutors. The typology of indeterminate articles in Spanish is as follows:

• "Un" for masculine singular: A dog.
• "Una" for feminine singular: A card.
• "Unos" for masculine plural: Some books.
• "Unas" for feminine plural: Some coins.

The general uses of the indeterminate article or indefinite are the following:

• Information named for the first time: I have eaten in a new restaurant in Madrid.
• Things that, although known, we do not want to specify: I have bought some shirts online.
• With the verb "haber": There is a play this weekend that I want to see.

On the other hand, the indeterminate article can have other meanings, such as "about", "near" or "around" when it is placed in front of a number: Last summer I weighed about a hundred kilos ("Last summer I weighed close to one hundred kilos"), About a thousand people attended the concert ("About a thousand people attended the concert").

Likewise, the indeterminate article may have emphatic character in sentences like the following: It's freezing! whose pronunciation with the appropriate exclamatory intonation means that "it is very cold".

Now that you know each of the types well, it is important that we analyze what are the differences between definite and indeterminate articles. Therefore, below, and as a summary, we are going to discover the Main differences that will help you quickly detect what kind of article we are dealing with.

• The determined ones serve to refer to something that we already know. Instead, the indeterminates are used to refer to something that we do not know previously.
• The determined ones are EL / LA / LOS / LAS. Instead, the indeterminates are specified with articles such as UN / UNA / UNOS / UNAS

Here we leave you some examples so you can see the differences between determinate and indeterminate:

The house is very clean

Some children yelled at me in the street

The phone is broken

A woman has told me to come

To finish this complete lesson it is important that we dedicate a section to the examples of definite and indeterminate articles with prayers concrete and that, thus, you can better understand what each of these articles in Spanish are like.

Examples of specific items

• The boy is tired
• This Friday we are going to go camping
• The lady has a dog that she calls "Chimpanzee"
• Aurora's kids are a bit of a hooligan
• The teacher helps my son a lot in math
• The girl is a little short

Examples of indeterminate articles

• Someday I'll go see you in Singapore
• One of these days I'll take my things and leave here
• Some Friday we can go on a hike
• One any morning I'll go swimming at the beach
• I want to buy some chairs for the terrace
• Some girls have told me that the teacher is sick