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Contents for this week:

-- Common Mistake
-- Cultural Note
-- Speak Spanish Conversationally
-- New Podcast
-- Idioms

COMMON MISTAKE

When a feminine singular noun begins with a stressed "a" or "ha" use the article "el" rather than "la." This is done simply for pronunciation purposes. Let's look at a common example:

el agua

To understand why we use "el" rather than "la" try pronouncing the following very rapidly three times:

la agua
la agua
la agua

Notice how the final "a" in "la" tends to blend with the beginning "a" in "agua" with the result sounding like a different word altogether:

lagua

So, to avoid this, we simply change the "la" to "el." Say the following rapidly three times: