Spanish Grammar Explained /
The articles
English nouns don't have genders. The definite article is always "the". In Spanish, objects are either masculine or feminine: la casa, "the house", is feminine, while el vino ,"the wine", is masculine.
You probably already know a few Spanish words, but do you also know their gender?
el sombrero
the sunhat (literally: the shader)
el burrito
the burrito
el tornado
the tornado (from tornar "to turn")
la fiesta
the party
la quesadilla
the quesadilla (from queso, "cheese")
la siesta
the nap
If you've studied any French or German, you'll find Spanish articles to be a breeze! Usually, words ending in -o are masculine and in -a are feminine.
Last but not least, if the word they precede is plural, you will need the plural article.
singular | | plural |
el sombrero | → | los sombreros |
la fiesta | → | las fiestas |
An oft-repeated bit of folk etymology is the story of a man named Juan Méndez who sold tacos at a street stand during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1921) while using a donkey as a transport for himself and his food. As the "food of the burrito" (i.e., "food of the little donkey") grew in popularity, "burrito" was eventually adopted as the name for these large tacos.