"el agua de lluvia para usarla"

Question

Hola,If agua is a feminine noun that takes 'el" in the singular, would it be correct to say ...... para usarlo? I tried it and was marked wrong, so can you help me understand it.Many thanksJohn

Answer

Hola JohnInteresting question..."Agua" is a feminine noun, not masculine. It takes article "el" instead of "la" as explained in our lesson, but it doesn't make word agua masculine. For example, adjectives relating to this word would still take the feminine form, e.g "el agua limpia" (the clean water). So, if later in another sentence we are referring to water with a pronoun, which is the case in this exercise, we would use the feminine form "la", not "lo". Hope this clarified it.SaludosInma

Answer

Absolutely - and makes total sense. Thanks Inma. John