Spanish Grammar

All nominal syntagmas in Spanish should be followed by a determinant: a possessive a demonstrative pronoun, or an article. As a rule, a determinant can go with a noun, though it can be omitted:

– ¿Cuál quieres? – Which one would you like?
– El rojo – The red one

There are three forms of an article: the definite article, the indefinite article and the zero article (the absence of the article). There are so many rules and details of use, that even the most experienced non-native teachers can make mistakes. Usually, at early stages of learning, students “lose” articles, and at more advanced stages, they overuse them, even if they’re not necessary.

The use of articles is influenced by three main factors: the opposition between new/old information (the so-called theme and rheme relations), the opposition between a certain countable/abstract uncountable and the opposition between some/all elements of a multitude. There is an important rule for nominative syntagmas with prepositions.

To sum up, we are faced with the following:

	definite article	indefinite article	zero article
singular	many parts of one element	one of elements of a multitude	uncountable nouns after a verb
plural	all elements of a multitude	some elements of a multitude	a large number of elements composing an uncountable multitude

Let’s have a closer look at the examples.

Singular

The definite article can be used with the unique in their kind objects

la luna, el sol, la Tierra – the Moon, the Sun, the Earth

 or objects, unambiguously defined from the context

el coche que has comprado – the car you’ve bought

 Sometimes, the unambiguity comes from the fact that the object has already been mentioned:

He visto un coche muy bonito. (…) El coche lo vende mi primo – I’ve seen a nice car. The car (this already mentioned car) is sold by my cousin

The indefinite article is used with the objects, that can be several in one category:

He visto un coche rojo – I’ve seen a red car (there are many red cars in general)

 The difference is very clear in the following example: if the person you’re talking to is saying

Me voy a Villaleón y me voy a quedar en el hotel – I’m going to Villaleon and I’m goint to stay at the hotel

you can come to the conclusion there is only one hotel in Villaleon. If there are several hotels, the person will say

me voy a quedar en un hotel – I’m going to stay at a hotel

As soon as the noun if followed by an adjective or a nominative syntagma, it starts belonging to a wider category and gets an indefinite article, compare:

without a complement	with a complement
Sale la luna The moon is rising (the only moon that exists)	Sale una luna pálida, una luna de película… one of the moons in te category of all possible moons
Me da ____ miedo I’m scared	me da un miedo enorme, un miedo que me muero… I have one fear of all possible types of fear

It should be borne in mind that in speech, the known information tends to come in the first place, and then goes the unknown information. That’s why a verb is more often preceded by the words with the definite article, and after the verb – the words with the indefinite article:

El abuelo tiene un perro – The grandfather (known information) has a dog (new information)

El perro lo ha dejado con un amigo – The dog (known information) was left to his friend (new information)

No article is used before abstract and uncountable nouns after a verb:

Me das ___ confianza – You give me confidence

Sale ___ agua  – Water is running

This rule has one important exception: the verbs of emotions (verbos de sentimiento) are always used with the definite article, even if the noun is uncountable

Me molesta la luz – Light disturbs me

Plural

With the definite article, the plural form means all the elements of the category.
Attention! Here Spanish and English have different behaviour:

Los rusos – (all the) Russians
Los libros en español – (All the) books in Spanish

With the indefinite article the plural means some elements:

Veo unos coches – I can see ___ cars / some cars
Compró unos libros – She bought some books

Finally, zero article with the plural form means all the objects, that are considered to be a mass, for example:

Leo ____ novelas – I read ___ novels (I’m not thinking of any specific novel)

This case is quite often in Spanish, when we’re talking about routine actions:

Ver ___ películas
Comprar ___ yogures…

No article is used in negation:

No veo ____ coches
No he comprado _____ libros

Still, zero article cannot be used in the position before the verb, apart from inversion with an obligatory nominative complement, which is possible only in written speech, like in

FORMAL SPEECH: ___Jóvenes de todo el mundo vinieron al congreso

ORAL SPEECH: Al congreso vinieron ___  jóvenes de todo el mundo

It should be stated that both in singular and plural forms, unlike English, the verb should be preceded by an article:

Los rusos son fríos
La geografía es una ciencia

Nominative syntagmas with prepositions

A nominative syntagma with a preposition can be used literally, or as a classifier showing the type and category of objects.

preposition	literal meaning	an example in the literal meaning	as a classifier (Which? How?)
de	possessive (Whose?)	coche de la profesora	coche de ____ moda
en	being inside (Where?)	libro en la mesa	viaje en ___ tren
para	destiny (For whom?)	regalo para la abuela	concierto para ____ flauta
con	accompanying object/subject (With whom? With what?)	comida con los tíos	comer con ____ apetito

Un coche de moda – is a subcategory of cars, un viaje en tren – a type of a trip, un concierto para flauta – a type of a concert, and comer con apetito – a way of eating. In all these cases, syntagmas with prepositions classify other syntagmas, rather than are used in their lateral meaning.

It should be stated that out of these four prepositions, the preposition de is far more often used, though some prepositions may not coincide in different languages (house in the countryside – una casa de campo).