Using Spanish Articles to form Nominal Sentances

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In Spanish, articles are also used to show a noun’s definiteness. Since it is a gender and number specific language, these articles are also inflected for gender and plurality. Study the table below that introduces these articles:

• Masculine Definite - El (singular), Los (plural)
• Masculine Indefinite - Un, Unos
• Feminine Definite - La, Las
• Feminine Indefinite - Una, Unas

So, here then are the steps in forming nominal phrases:

1. Identify the gender of the noun. Check its ending but remember the exceptions.
2. How many are being talked about? If it’s more than one, observe the ending so you would know what suffix to add.
3. Is the noun definite or not? This would determine what article to use.

Examples: Answer the questions in Spanish.

Q: What did you have for breakfast?
A: 2 bananas and a glass of milk

1. Platano ‘banana’ is a male. Vaso ‘glass’ is also a male.
2. 2 bananas. Hence, add -s to change platano to the plural, and 1 glass, so vaso stays the same.
3. 2 bananas - definite, with the number, two, would be "dos platanos", and a glass is indefinite, so you would use "un vaso".
   
4. So, the final answer would be "Dos platanos y un vaso de leche"
   

Q: Who called while I was gone?
A: The neighbors (girls) and a student (boy)

1. The neighbors are girls. Use vecina (instead of vecino). Estudiante is neuter. No need for inflection.
2. Neighbors is plural, so add -s to change vecina to vecinas. And there's only one student, so estudiante stays the same.
3. The neighbors are definite, use las vecinas, and a student is indefinite so you'd use 'un estudiante'.
4. The final answer would be "Las vecinas y un estudiante".