Everything agrees: nouns, articles and adjectives

CEFR A1

What you will learn

Choose a definite or indefinite article that matches a noun in gender and number.
Form the regular plural of common A1 nouns and adjectives.
Make article, noun and adjective agree across a complete noun phrase.

The idea

Spanish nouns belong to a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine. Gender is part of the word's grammar, not a judgement about the object. A table can be feminine and a book masculine even though neither object has a biological sex. The safest learning unit is therefore not “mesa” but “la mesa”, and not “libro” but “el libro”. The article carries information that an English noun does not show.

Many nouns ending in -o are masculine and many ending in -a are feminine. Common nouns ending in -ción, -sión or -dad are usually feminine. These patterns help, but they do not replace the article: “el problema”, “el día” and “la mano” show why guessing from the last letter can fail.

Names of people ending in -ista normally keep the same noun form while the article changes: “el artista” and “la artista”. A1 learners do not need to memorise every exception at once; they do need to store each new noun with an article.

The complete A1 article set

gender and number	definite: the	indefinite: a, an, some
masculine singular	el	un
feminine singular	la	una
masculine plural	los	unos
feminine plural	las	unas

Regular number and adjective agreement

base	singular phrase	plural phrase	change
vowel ending	la ventana clara	las ventanas claras	+s on noun and adjective
consonant ending	el papel gris	los papeles grises	+es on noun and adjective
adjective in -e	el coche grande / la casa grande	los coches grandes / las casas grandes	same gender form; number still changes

How it sounds

unas ventanas pequeñas“Ventana” is feminine, so its plural article must also be feminine. The noun ends in a vowel, so add -s: “ventanas”. The adjective copies feminine plural: “pequeñas”.

Four-part arrangement with one red book, three matching red books, one blue chair and two matching blue chairs. — The same object changes from singular to plural; the words around its noun must change with it.

Your turn

Two or three, to check that the bit above landed.

Use this image
The upper-right group shows three matching red books. Which complete phrase describes it?
los libros rojos — “Libro” is masculine and the picture shows more than one, so article, noun and adjective all take masculine plural form.
Use this image
Describe the single blue chair with a definite article, the noun “silla” and the adjective “azul”.
la silla azul — “Silla” is feminine singular; “azul” has the same singular form for both genders.
Use this image
Change “una silla azul” so it describes the two blue chairs in the lower-right group.
unas sillas azules — The noun adds -s, the adjective ending in a consonant adds -es, and the article becomes feminine plural.

What your own language pushes you to say

Wrong los casas blanco

Right las casas blancas

In Spanish the article and the adjective must both match the feminine plural noun.

Once it makes sense

Practise this: Every noun is “el” or “la”Practise this: Adjectives agree, and they come after Practise this: “El café”, “los lunes”, “el español”The present tense: three endings and you can talk One English “to be”, three Spanish choices