el agua y las aguas
Rhonda Ladd
feminine? I understand this to be true for aguila as well. If you can
expound I would appreciate it!
Rhonda
Lizy
Rhonda Ladd wrote in message <72oca8$8qe$1...@camel15.mindspring.com>...
>My question is the singular form of "agua" masculine and the plural
>feminine?
You're absolutely right!!
Lizy
Ed Zwart
Ack!! No Rhonda, you're mistaken here. "Agua" and "águila" are not
masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural. They're always
feminine. The reason they take (what looks like) a masculine article in
the singular is interesting, and, I think, commonly misunderstood.
This is the story that we are taught when we learn Spanish:
Any singular feminine word that begins with a tonic (stressed) "a" or
"ha" takes a "masculine" article to avoid the mixing of two similar vowel
sounds. So we say "el agua" because "la agua" would sound like "lagua."
If this makes it easy for us to remember, great. We can carry on with
our lives. (However, it is important to remember that if you were to
make the somewhat redundant statement "the cold water of the Arctic
Ocean" you would revert back to the "feminine" article: "la fría agua del
Océano Ártico.")
But, this explanation that we use the "masculine" article to avoid mixing
of the vowel sounds has never really satisfied me. I always thought,
"What about words in which the first syllable isn't tonic?" Such as the
one recently brought up in this group, "la amiga" which, for all intents
and purposes, sounds exactly like "la miga" when a native speaker says
them in normal conversation.
The answer lies in that when we say "el agua" we are in fact not using
the masculine article at all!
Here's the deal:
The articles "el" and "la" developed from the Latin articles "illum" and
"illam." To make my example a bit easier to explain, let's pretend the
Latin word for water has already transformed into "agua" and the articles
haven't yet changed. So, we say "illam agua." The way that "illam" will
develop into Spanish is that first the "m" will drop off the end, then
the double "ll" will simplify to one "l" and finally the initial "i" will
change to an "e" and later disappear altogether. But wait, that would
still give us "la agua," would it not? Why then does "agua" in the
singular take "el"? The answer lies in the way in which words developed
out of Latin and into Spanish. There are many rules that govern the
transformation of Latin words into Spanish, but the important one here is
that the *weakest* syllable in a word or a common word cluster is
dropped. Weak syllables are those that are BOTH atonic (not-stressed)
AND very near the tonic syllable (usually in front). So, in the case of
"illam agua" the second syllable of "illam" is BOTH atonic AND
immediately in front of the tonic syllable of "agua." (The first
syllable of "agua" is also the most stressed syllable for the entire
phrase "illam agua" because the tonic syllable of the noun takes
precedence over that of the article.) What results is "il agua" which
will later develop into "el agua" in the same transformation that all
singular masculine noun phrases would follow: for example, "illum barco"
> "illo barco" > "il barco" > "el barco." (I realize that I'm using
Latin articles with Spanish nouns; bear with me!)
To make a long and convoluted story short, when we say "el agua" we are
not doing so because of the confusion that would result from two similar
vowel sounds next to each other. We are doing it because of the way
Latin developed into Spanish.
Having said all that, if it is easier for us to remember that we use the
"masculine" article with singular feminine nouns that begin with "a" or
"ha," all the power to us!! BUT, "agua" is definitely NOT masculine in
the singular and feminine in the plural. You still have to say "el agua
fría."
Cheers
Ed
--
-----------------------------------
Ed Zwart <e...@uvic.ca>
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Lloyd Zusman
> My question is the singular form of "agua" masculine and the plural
> feminine? I understand this to be true for aguila as well. If you can
> expound I would appreciate it!
The word "agua" is always feminine, but in the case where one would
say "la agua", the definite article "la" gets changed to "el" for ease
of pronunciation, although the gender stays feminine. This is a rule
for nouns beginning with stressed "a" sound (which also could be
spelled "ha"), such as "agua", "alma", "hambre", "haba", etc.
The same holds true for the indefinite articles "un/una", as in "un
ancia" and "un haba".
If there's an intervening adjective between the article and the
noun, the feminine article reappears, as in "la misma agua"
or "una pequeña haba".
This doesn't apply to words beginning with an unstressed "a" sound,
such as "hamaca". Nor does it apply to adjectives modifying feminine
nouns, neither with the preceding article nor the ending of the
adjective. For example, one would say "la amplia área", but without
the adjective, the form would be "el área".
--
Lloyd Zusman
l...@asfast.com
Jorge Perez
>feminine? I understand this to be true for aguila as well. If you can
>expound I would appreciate it!
"Agua" is a feminine sustantive. Occurs that if used with its article
"la" produces what in spanish is called "cacofonia" (sorry, I dont't
know its name in english): "la agua" -- one "-a" followed by another
"-a" sounds bad. Then "la" is replaced by "el", that sounds better.
This doesn't mean "agua" is masculine, but just a convenience change.
Thus, you say "EL agua de este manantial es BUENA" if "agua" is
singular, and "LAS aguas de este rio bajan REVUELTAS" because plural
doesn't produce "cacofonia".
But, again, always remember that "agua" is feminine. And same
explanation is valid for "aguila", of course.
Hope this helps you
-------------------------------------------------
Greetings: Jorge
----------------
"As the right hemisphere of the brain controls
the left side of the body then only left-handers
are in their right minds" (8
-------------------------------------------------
Refugio
se le pone el artículo masculino en el singular es la eufonía,
nada más. Lo mismo ocurre con todas los nombres femeninos
que empiezan con a tónica.
Now, let's see if I am able to say it clearly in English. The noun
agua is femenine always. The reason to use the masculine
form of the article with this word in singular is just euphony. We do the
same with all nouns beginning with stressed a (exempli
gratia: águila, ánima).