Use of el and la

Bilha K.A2Kwiziq community member

Use of el and la

I notice that Spanish often inserts el/la where English doesn't. Like "como la observación, la intuición y la lógica." whereas in English one writes "like observation, tuition, and logic."

Is there a rule for this?

Asked 4 years ago
Paul E.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

There are so many rules that it is really difficult.  Try a search in these Q&A, it comes up often.

John O.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hola Bilha,

This question comes up a lot as Paul says. If you search on "Definite Article" at the top of your dashboard you will see. Inma replied to one of my questions some time ago to say that they are working on a lesson to explain this. 

That said there is one called "Presence of the definite article in Spanish" which deals with one aspect of the question. If you google "Use of the definite article in Spanish" there are a couple of handy articles. 

They are worth a read but hopefully Lawless will have their lesson soon. John 

A G.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Yeah... in my se on d year of studying Spanish, I asked my professor (who admittedly was more into Latino culture than linguistics) and he was like, “You just have to get to know Spanish better.” I’d love to see what our experts here say! They do such a great job of explaining usage, even when it’s more of a flexible “feel” than a hard-and fast rule.

Bilha K. asked:

Use of el and la

I notice that Spanish often inserts el/la where English doesn't. Like "como la observación, la intuición y la lógica." whereas in English one writes "like observation, tuition, and logic."

Is there a rule for this?

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