Madrid es la ciudad muy bonita

Is there a mistake on the title of this entry?

- Madrid es la ciudad muy bonita.

Go over it again and pay attention. Maybe it sounds perfectly logical to you, but you think there's a mistake just because I'm telling you to pay attention and, who's going to ask for attention if there's no mistakes, right? Yes, there's a mistake.

- Madrid es UNA ciudad muy bonita.

This is the correction. But why una and not la? These are called:

- Artículos indefinidos: un, una, unos, unas (indefinite articles)
- Artículos definidos: el, la, los, las (definite articles)

There's no need of explanation because their names say everything about them: definite and indefinite, which means they define (precise and more specifically) or more openly they look indefinite or unprecise (indefinite). But let's see this practically...

- Madrid es la ciudad muy bonita.

It seems quite precise, a lot in fact, i'm saying Madrid! What's more precise than that? I'm telling you the name of the city and everything that name represents. Well, because the article doesn't refer to Madrid, but to ciudad muy bonita.

If we think in these terms, we really change the equation: una ciudad muy bonita is pretty unprecise. What does it have a pretty city? What is it like? There are more pretty cities besides Madrid, so we're not defining a lot actually, it looks indefinite in fact. What we say with...

- Madrid es una ciudad muy bonita.

...is that Madrid falls under the category of ciudad muy bonita, but this group or category is not defined, and that's what the indefinite article refers to, and not Madrid, which is more than precise and specific. I hope you follow me at this point.

Imagine I'm an extraterrestrial and I've been here on planet Earth for a week. On the news I only hear the word Obama: Obama bla bla bla, Obama and Iraq, Obama and Spain, Obama, etc.
And I ask some Spanish speaker: ¿Quién es Obama?

- Es un político americano.

It's a perfect answer, but not very precise. Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ron Paul. All these are American politicians too. Obama, who is a very well-defined person falls under the category of político americano, which is not defined.
But I ask some other Spanish speaker because I want to know more about Obama. And I hear:

- ¡Ah Obama! Sí, el presidente de Estados Unidos.

Me, as an extraterrestrial (or language students, which is about the same thing) I can tell the difference from un and el. But, why did this earthman use el this time? Let's see whether what follows it's defined or not: presidente de Estados Unidos. It's really well defined, so well defined that there's only one possible answer: Obama.

But wait, what about Kennedy, Lincoln and company? They were also presidents of the United States. Yes, but not now. We can define more though:

- El primer presidente de Estados Unidos fue Abraham Lincoln.
- Obama es el primer presidente negro de Estados Unidos.

Our conception of the world.-

In some cases, it might seem hard to define the thing we're talking about. For example, we're sitting in my room and I tell you:

- ¿Por qué no cierras la puerta? Es que entra corriente...

Of course, puerta doesn't seem defined in this case, but, how many doors are in my room? One, so that one is la puerta, the only possible option.

You're looking at the sky at night with binoculars for the first time in your life. Read this dialogue and tell me if it's realistic or not:

- ¡Ahí está! ¡Veo la Luna!
- ¿Qué luna?
- ¡Pues la Luna! ¡Nuestra luna!

We call our satellite The Moon, but there are more moons in the Solar System, and they have other names. However, when we say La Luna, we know we refer to our moon. That's why we say La Luna. La in this case means like our moon, the closest to us, the one you see with your naked eye at night and has been there for thousands and millions of years.

Does that mean the other planet's moons should be called Una Luna? No!!!! Everything depends on how precise you are. We CAN'T say for example:

- La luna de Júpiter (Because Jupiter has many moons, so which moon is that la? It's not defined, unless we've been talking before about his moon. We'll see this later).

On the other hand, we CAN say:

- Io es una luna de Júpiter.

This is like the first example Madrid es una ciudad muy bonita. Io is defined of course, but not una luna de Júpiter. Jupiter has like 63 moons, and more are being discovered.

Days of the week.-

The same happens with the days of the week:

- El lunes, el martes, el miércoles, el jueves, el viernes, el sábado y el domingo.

When we say this, el + the name of the day, we know what day we're referring to. If I say:

- El sábado estuve en Madrid (of course it's last Saturday, the closest to us in the past)
- El sábado voy a Madrid (it's the closest to us in the future. next Saturday)

Because of our conception of time and the world, if you say to me: el sábado estuve en Madrid, I'll never think that was two Saturdays ago. It's the closest in the future or the past, the best defined for us. Many people say el sábado pasado (last Saturday) but the verb in the past is telling you so, there's no need to say it. It's as confusing as saying el próximo sábado voy a Madrid. I'm sure the other person will ask: this saturday or next week? Because by saying Saturday and using the present (as a future tense here) we say so, próximo is just not needed. What's more, it's not recommended because it can cause confusion and people will always think the second Saturday from now.

Ok, let's do some practice. Put the right article in the gaps and let's see if you got it. You have a small clue:

1 - ... capital de España es Madrid (how many capitals does a country have? Is that defined?)
2 - Zapatero es ... presidente de España. (how many presidents a country has? Defined?)
3 - ... cantante de Metallica se llama James Hetfield. (how many singers Metallica have?)
4 - No veo nada, ¿por qué no enciendes ... luz? (how many switchs are in a room usually?)
5 - Es ... última vez que te lo repito. (will there be any other times after this?)
6 - ... primer hombre en ... Luna fue Neil Armstrong (there were more "first men"?)

Keys to the exercise:

1) - la (very well defined, there's only one capital)
2) - el (well defined, only one president in Spain)
3) - el (well defined, only one singer in Metallica)
4) - la (well defined, the only switch there's usually in a room or the one you point to)
5) - la (well defined, it's the last time, so there'll be no other time)
6) - El / La (well defined both, first man on OUR satellite was Neil Armstrong)

Cultural application of articles in real life.-

Maybe you've noticed, heard or studied this difference:

- Venga. nos vemos el domingo. Hasta luego, chao...
- Vale, nos vemos un sábado o un domingo. Hasta luego...

If we said el domingo it'd be an already defined Sunday (the next), so what do you think un domingo means? ... An undefined one, exactly. That means I don't know what Sunday we're going to meet. Usually, when people meet this way, it ultimately means they won't probably :) If you're interested in meeting with somebody, you set an appointment el domingo, and not un domingo. An undefined day means a vague interest in doing that. But remember, could it happen that you hear this and you meet next week? PERFECTLY. Remember nothing is absolute, but it's more likely the other thing to happen...








To be continued...