I am confused as to when I should use la or el. For example:
Mi televisor es peor que el televisor de mi hermano. Es _______________de la casa.
a) la peor
b) el peor
Each means "the worst" and I am guessing that I use el peor since televisor is male (I think).
Any help with this would be great. My book does not do a good job with explainig the use of el, la los, and las.
Thanks
In that sentence peor has to agree with televisor which is masculine. Therefore it would be el peor.
El and Los are masculine articles.
La and Las are feminine articles.
The article has to agree with the noun that it modifies. el gato, la mesa.
Here is a site on that
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/genoun1.htm
¡Hola,Lucy! What this actually is is "Nominalization with the definite article." You name something (a noun) with the typical gender that goes with that noun and then delete the noun, using an adjective. Some examples:
el libro = es el peor de la biblioteca
la casa = es la peor del barrio
los libros = son los peores de la biblioteca
las casas = son las peores del barrio.
This nominalization can also occur with infinitives and clause relator "que" + a verb.
Sra
P.S. I nearly forgot the prepositional phrase = definite article + de + phrase
(Examples): (libro) el de María es peor.
(casa) la de mi barrio es peor
(los libros) los de esta clase son peores
(las casas) las de su pueblo son peores
Sra
Summary: 1) definite article + adjective
2) definite article + que + verb phrase
3) definite article + de + prepositional phrase
4) definite article + infinitive
This really helped alot!! Thanks.
Thanks for the website. It will really help me alot!
Thanks.
In Spanish, the words "la" and "el" are definite articles, used to indicate the gender and number of the noun they accompany. "La" is used for feminine singular nouns, while "el" is used for masculine singular nouns.
In the given sentence, "televisor" is a masculine singular noun, so you are correct in assuming that you should use "el" to complete the sentence. Therefore, the correct answer is:
b) el peor
To ensure that you choose the correct definite article in the future, here is a brief guide:
1. For masculine singular nouns: Use "el"
Examples: el libro (the book), el perro (the dog), el coche (the car)
2. For feminine singular nouns: Use "la"
Examples: la casa (the house), la silla (the chair), la mesa (the table)
3. For masculine plural nouns: Use "los"
Examples: los libros (the books), los perros (the dogs), los coches (the cars)
4. For feminine plural nouns: Use "las"
Examples: las casas (the houses), las sillas (the chairs), las mesas (the tables)
Remember that adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in both gender and number. In this case, "peor" agrees with the noun "televisor" in gender and number.
I hope this explanation helps clarify the use of "el" and "la" in Spanish. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!