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El agua, las aguas.
Many students (and natives) wonder why we say el agua (water), but in plural we say las aguas (waters).
Agua is a feminine noun, and yet, we say el agua, so most people think we should say la agua instead.
Most feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound (including ha) take the masculine article. This avoids el-agua sounding like la-agua. The sound of la-agua is considered uneducated. In the plural, the s of las or unas breaks the cacophony (harsh or discordant sound of words or phrases. Cacofonía. Disonancia.)
Here is a list I compiled myself containing most nouns that follow this rule. Many of these words are not commonly used, they are outdated. Again, regardless of the el article, all these nouns are feminine:
| el acta | las actas | document, report, certificate |
| el afta | las aftas | blister, cold sore |
| el ágata | las ágatas | agate (gem) |
| el agua | las aguas | water, waters, currents |
| el águila | las águilas | eagle |
| el ala | las alas | wing |
| el alba | las albas | dawn, rare in plural |
| el alca | las alcas | an arctic species of bird |
| el alga | las algas | seaweed |
| el álgebra | las álgebras | algebra. rare in plural. |
| el alma | las almas | soul |
| el alta | las altas | to be released from hospital, enrollment, registration |
| el alza | las alzas | rise, increase, used in finance. |
| el ama | las amas | mistress. El ama de casa. housewife. El ama de llaves, housekeeper. |
| el anca | las ancas | rear legs of some animals |
| el ancla | las anclas | anchor |
| el ánfora | las ánforas | amphora |
| el ánima | las ánimas | soul |
| el ansa | las ansas | alternate old spelling of “asa” |
| el ansia | las ansias | anxiety, longing |
| el anta | las antas | some architectural decoration, tapir |
| el ara | las aras | altar, honor |
| el arca | las arcas | chest, safe, ark |
| el arda | las ardas | old word for “ardilla”, squirrel. |
| el área | las áreas | area |
| el arma | las armas | arm, weapon |
| el árnica | las árnicas | arnica (plant) |
| el arpa | las arpas | harp |
| el asa | las asas | bag, mug, drawer handle. |
| el ascua | las ascuas | ember |
| el asma | las asmas | asthma, rare in plural |
| el aspa | las aspas | blender blades, propellers, mill arm |
| el asta | las astas | pole, mast, horn |
| el aula | las aulas | classroom |
| el ave | las aves | birds, as opposed to mammals, reptiles, etc. |
| el haba | las habas | broad bean |
| el habla | las hablas | speech. Rare in plural. |
| el hacha | las hachas | axe, hatchet |
| el hada | las hadas | fairy. Used in literature, fairytales, etc. |
| el halda | las haldas | some kind of packaging fabric |
| el hambre | las hambres | hunger, rare in plural. We say tengo mucha hambre. I’m very hungry (Lit: I have a lot of hunger) |
| el hampa | las hampas | underworld, crime, rare in plural |
| el harca | las harcas | some military term used in Spain |
| el harda | las hardas | alternate spelling of “farda”, a sac. Also, old form for arda and ardilla (squirrel). |
| el harpa | las harpas | alternate spelling of arpa. |
Exceptions:
La arte, el arte, los
artes, las artes (art; both genders)
Letters are feminine for the most part
La A, las As (the Spanish name of the
letter “a”, las aes, is the plural form according to the RAE))
La alfa, las alfas (the Greek letter alpha)
La hache, las haches (the Spanish name of the
letter “h”)
El álef, La álef, Los álefs, las álefs (both genders. Hebrew’s aleph)
Various nouns, some coming from
adjectives, describing female people or animals
La árabe, las árabes (a female Arab
person)
La árbitra, las árbitras (a female referee)
La aria, las arias (feminine for Aryan)
La asna, las asnas (female donkey. Some scholars prefer “El asno
hembra” (female donkey), but it’s way too formal)
La ánade, las ánades (female variety of duck)
La áspid (female asp)
Notice that compounds do not
necessarily follow the rule because the stress falls on a different
syllable:
El aguardiente,
la aguamala
As of yet, not many scholars
agree on what to do in cases like these; I would go for the feminine
article:
El hábil hada or La hábil hada.
Un ágil águila or Una ágil águila
When the noun is inflected, the stress moves to a different syllable so the masculine article is
no longer necessary:
La agüita,
la anclota, la alita, la aguilota
In this table, I used the definite article, but you can use the
indefinite article as well, i.e. un, unas.
Las aguas del mar.
https://debelice.tumblr.com/post/645278659338452992/vistanow
Originally published on 20060205. Updated on 20101002. Latest update 20210311 (spanishNY.com) top
