El or la?

Tap the article for the 2,500 Spanish nouns you will use most. When you miss one, you see the rule or the exception behind it.

How to tell el from la

You use el with most nouns that end in -o. The exceptions to learn are la mano, la foto, la moto and la radio.

You use la with most nouns that end in -a. The exceptions to learn are el día, el mapa and the nouns from Greek below.

You use la with every noun that ends in one of these.

You use el with these, though they end in -a.

You use el with every noun in -aje and most nouns in -or. La flor and la labor are the exceptions.

You say el agua because it starts with a stressed a. It stays feminine, so you say las aguas.

You use el for a man and la for a woman when the noun keeps one form.

You say la capital for a city and el capital for money.
You say el orden for order and tidiness, and la orden for a command.
You say el cura for a priest and la cura for a cure.
You say la coma for the punctuation mark and el coma for the medical state.
You say la frente for your forehead and el frente for a front.
You say el final for the end and la final for the last match of a tournament.
You say el corte for a cut and la corte for a royal court or a court of law.
You say el cometa for a comet and la cometa for a kite.

You say el sol but la sal, so you learn the two together.
You say la sal but el sol, so you learn the two together.
You say la persona for a man or a woman.
You say la víctima for a man or a woman.
You say la radio in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. From Mexico and the Caribbean down to Peru, you often hear el radio for the set itself.