Nouns in Spanish are preceded by an article that agrees with them in gender and in number.Â
In masculine, the indefinite articles are un and unos and in feminine una and unas. The plural forms of the indefinite articles unos and unas are not commonly used, because their meaning is some. In masculine, the definite articles are el and los and in feminine la and las.Â
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| un libro | a book | unos libros | some books |
| una casa | a house | unas casas | some houses |
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| el libro | the book | los libros | the books |
| la casa | the house | las casas | the houses |
The indefinite article is used when something is mentioned for the first time, whether it is a single thing or several things:
Tengo una falda de España.
I have a skirt from Spain.
The definite article is used when talking about something already mentioned before, specific or familiar, both in singular and in plural:
La falda que compré en España era muy barata.
The skirt I bought in Spain was very cheap.
Unlike in English, a definite article is used in Spanish when talking about things in general:
Los perros no deben comer chocolate.
Dogs mustn’t eat chocolate.
A definite article is also used with days of the week and times:
El curso de español se acaba el jueves.
The Spanish course ends on Thursday.
Son las doce.
It’s twelve o’clock.
If talking about a group of mixed gender, the masculine plural forms are used:Â
Tengo tres gatos y cuatro gatas. Todos los gatos son negros.
I have three male and four female cats. All the cats are black.
In Spanish, an indefinite article is not used in front of professions, unless in combination with an adjective:
Ella es artista.   not   Ella es una artista.
She is an artist.
But:
Ella es una artista muy famosa.
She is a very famous artist.