A determiner is a word that allows us to "zero in" on the particular nouns we are referring to. For example, is it specific? (el libro), not specific? (un libro), possessive? (mi libro), in front of you? (este libro), is there more than one? (dos libros). The main types we consider in this guide are articles (el, la, los, las, un, una, unos, unas, dos, muchos, etc.), possessives (mi, tus, su, nuestro, nuestra, vuestro, vuestras, etc.) and demonstratives (esta, este, esos). All determiners vary according to the gender and number of the noun they precede.
Articles allow us to indicate how definite (or specific) something is. In general, the definite Spanish articles (el, la, los, las) are equivalent to "the" in English, while the indefinite Spanish articles (un, una, unos, unas) are equivalent to "a/some" in English.
Some examples are given here:
As their name suggests, possessive determiners are placed before nouns to show who they belong to. These are illustrated in the following table:
For example:
* Don't confuse possessive determiners shown here that appear before nouns with possessive pronouns (e.g.: Es mío, no es tuyo = "It's mine, not yours.") Some of these are the same as the possessive determiners (nuestro/vuestro forms), but not all so be careful.
* Only the first and second person plural possessive determiners have masculine and feminine forms (nuestro/a and vuestro/a). All other possessive determiners have the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns.
Demonstrative determiners in Spanish are used to refer to nouns in relation to the speaker. Demonstrative determiners correspond to the English words this, these, that and those. Spanish uses the following demonstratives:
* Be careful not to confuse the demonstrative determiners with demonstrative pronouns like éste, ésa, and aquél which ARE written with an accent and CANNOT be used in front of a noun. Demonstrative pronouns stand on their own as nouns because they are pronouns, a kind of noun.
* Be careful not to confuse the present tense singular form of the verb estar, está, with the demonstratives. There is no accent on the demonstrative determiner esta, the accent is on the é for the demonstrative pronoun ésta, and the accent is on the á for the verb está.
* Remember that all kinds of determiners (articles, possessives and demonstratives) in Spanish need to agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.
Q: Why is it una clase and NOT un clase?
R: The word clase is feminine and must therefore be preceded by a feminine determiner (e.g.: una, esta, la). You may need to review the gender of common nouns.
Q: Why is it Paul ama a la mujer and NOT Paul ama al mujer?
R: It doesn’t matter whether the person who is writing (or speaking) is a man or a woman. The gender of the determiner depends on the following noun (the thing or person being modified). So, for example if a boy named Paul is talking about his mother, he will refer to her as la mujer since the word mujer is feminine. On the other hand, one writes Paul ama al perro (since the word perro is masculine). You might need to review the gender of common nouns and make sure you learn a noun's gender when you learn the meaning of the noun.
Q: Why is it las personas and NOT la personas?
R: Like English, Spanish indicates plural nouns by adding an -s or -es to the noun. For example, in English, one writes three books and in Spanish one writes tres libros. It is important to note that, unlike English, Spanish indicates the plural on the preceeding determiners as well. Consider the following sentence: She returned the books which translates as Ella devolvió los libros. As you can see, there are two markers for the plural in Spanish (los, the determiner, and -s on the end of the noun).
Q: Why is it el agua and NOT la agua?
R: Spanish doesn't allow two stressed "a" vowels to be pronounced between words. This means that singular feminine nouns that begin with a stressed "a" (agua, ágila, hacha, remember that the letter 'h' is silent in Spanish) will use the masculine singular definite article el, rather than the feminine la in order to avoid the two stressed "a" sounds occurring together.
Q: Why is it ella se lava las manos and NOT ella lava sus manos?
R: With body parts, use the reflexive verb lavarse. Note also that the determiner should be las rather than the possessive determiner sus. You may need to review reflexive verbs.
Q: Why is it es el mío and NOT es el mi?
R: Determiners always come before nouns, they never come at the end of a sentence. To say "mine" instead of "my", use a possessive pronoun (el mío).
Q: Why is it me gustan estas faldas and NOT me gustan éstas faldas or me gustanestás faldas?
R: Remember that the demonstrative determiners do NOT have accents but the demonstrative pronouns and some forms of the verb estar do have accents to distinguish these forms from one another and mark the stress in pronunciation. Review both the verb estar and demonstrative pronouns if you are unsure which ones have accents and when.
Write the correct definite determiner according to gender (feminine or masculine), and number (singular or plural) (el, la, los, las):
Choose the best determiner from the options given in brackets:
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