This Spanish Easy Review grammar quiz will challenge you on using the Spanish definite article - the. In English there is only one definite article. That article is the word 'the' which is also classified as an adjective. Why an adjective? Because it helps to describe or define another word. For example, let’s look at the word 'book'. What kind of a book? A blue book or a big book or a new book. The words blue, big and new are all adjectives as they describe the book. Now let’s ask the question: Which book? The book on the table. The definite article 'the' is describing what kind of a book.
It is the book. Even the table is using the definite article to describe something, i.e., table. This definite article is used more than any other word is used in English.
Spanish also has a definite article. However, in Spanish, because words are gender specific words, i.e., masculine, feminine or neutral (or non-gender specific), there are four definite articles. Why? Because Spanish has articles for each gender and for singular words and plural words. In English we would say 'the book' or 'the books'. The definite article remains the same whether the noun (subject or object) is singular or plural. Spanish is different in that 'the book' in Spanish would be 'el libro' and 'the books' would be 'los libros'.
Therefore, the four definite articles for the word 'the' in Spanish are as follows.
Singular
El - before a masculine noun singular. Example: el chico (the boy)
La - before a feminine noun singular. Example: la chica (the girl)
Plural
Los - before a masculine noun plural. Example: los chicos (the boys)
Las - before a feminine noun plural. Example: las chicas (the girls)
Notice that the singular masculine form of the definite article the is el. Do not confuse this with él as él means he. That little, tiny accent mark shows how it alone can completely change a word. If you were to write él chico you would be saying he boy. That is definitely not correct. Now you could say, él es un chico which means he is a boy but that is for another quiz. For now, please pay close attention to the importance of the accent mark.
Now onto the quiz. The quiz contains ten sentences with a definite article capitalized. From the answers given below each sentence, determine which answer is the correct answer that reflects the proper use of the definite article. You will have to be familiar with whether the subject/object is masculine or feminine to find the correct answer.