Spanish · Chapter 2 · Lesson 10 · Grammar primer
Noun gender: el or la
El or la: how Spanish decides, and the short exception list worth memorising.
The short version
El agua is still feminine
El agua, el hambre, el alma, el arma: the article flips to el only because a stressed a- next to la collapses in the mouth. It is a pronunciation fix, not a gender change. The noun stays feminine, so the adjective must agree as feminine, and the plural reverts to las aguas, unas armas. The trigger is stress, not spelling: la amiga keeps its la.
el agua fría
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