Spanish Stressed A - Feminine nouns with el or un

There's an interesting phenomenon in Spanish regarding feminine nouns that begin with a stressed A sound (which can be written either a or ha). When these nouns are singular and preceded directly by a definite article,* the masculine article is used instead of the feminine article you might expect.

Some common feminine stressed A words:

Notes:

*When dealing with an indefinite article, Spanish speakers will often use the masculine form in front of these words, but this is considered incorrect. It's only with the definite article that you should use the masculine form.

1. Despite the masculine article, these nouns are feminine, which means that everything but the singular article must agree with them, including:

• plural article
• adjectives (including descriptive, possessive, demonstrative, etc.)

2. When there is an adjective between the article and noun, the article is feminine:

Spanish gender exceptions     Grammar     Pronunciation

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