When To Use The 4 Indefinite Articles in Spanish: Your Ultimate Guide With Lots Of Examples

There’s one more important thing about indefinite articles in Spanish: they MUST agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.

Spring Spanish (a project I co-founded and which has great Spanish courses) made an awesome explanatory video about articles in Spanish.

In this blog post, we’re going to go in-depth with examples and other Spanish verbs that go with indefinite articles in Spanish.

1. What are indefinite articles in Spanish?

Just as we stated above in our ‘Effortless Answers’ section, there are 4 indefinite articles in Spanish:

1. Un: Masculine singular (un libro – a book).
2. Una: Feminine singular (una casa – a house).
3. Unos: Masculine plural (unos libros – some books).
4. Unas: Feminine plural (unas casas – some houses).

You would use these indefinite articles in Spanish when you’re talking about something for the first time or when the thing you’re talking about is unknown.

Basically, it shows that whoever is speaking is referring to any member of a category and not about a specific item.

Let’s see the indefinite articles in Spanish one by one!

Un – masculine, singular

You would use this indefinite article in Spanish with masculine nouns that are in singular form.

Check the next table for examples:

And if you want, you can see it in a real Spanish dialogue that you might be able to use with your Spanish language partner:

Carlos: Vi un gato en el parque ayer. (I saw a cat in the park yesterday.)
María: ¿De verdad? ¿Era grande? (Really? Was it big?)
Carlos: No, era un gato pequeño. (No, it was a small cat.)
María: Me gustan los gatos. (I like cats.)

A little bit of explanation: in this conversation, Carlos introduces “un gato” (a cat) for the first time, so he makes it clear that it is not a specific cat that María knows about.

Una – feminine, singular

Let’s continue with the feminine singular version: una.

You can see that it agrees with noun in gender and number, too.

Now, it’s pretty clear that you would use this indefinite article in Spanish with feminine Spanish nouns that are in the singular form:

Let’s see another Spanish conversation practice:

Sofía: Necesito una computadora nueva. (I need a new computer.)
Daniel: ¿Qué tipo de computadora? (What kind of computer?)
Sofía: No sé, solo quiero una que sea rápida. (I don’t know; I just want one that’s fast.)
Daniel: Entiendo. Hay unas buenas en la tienda. (I understand. There are some good ones at the store.)

These easy Spanish sentences introduce “una computadora” (a computer) to express Sofía’s need for any computer, not a specific one.

Unos – masculine, plural

The plural form for the indefinite article un is unos. When you’re talking about masculine nouns in Spanish, you would use unos.

Keep in mind, that the same rule applies to the plural forms, too. So, you would only use the plural indefinite article with things that you mention for the first time, or you don’t want to name any specific thing, and you’re talking more generally about them.

Like here:

Let’s imagine a situation where you bought new books – maybe some easy Spanish books?

Elena: Compré unos libros nuevos. (I bought some new books.)
Miguel: ¿Cuáles son? ¿De qué tratan? (Which ones? What are they about?)
Elena: Son unos libros de historia. (They are some history books.)
Miguel: Me encanta la historia. (I love history.)

Here, Elena uses “unos libros” (some books) to express that she bought more than one book, but she doesn’t say which ones exactly. It could be any book.

Unas – feminine, plural

And last but not least, the feminine version of indefinite articles in plural is: unas.

You’d use this with feminine plural nouns. Check the table for these examples:

We like to put every Spanish grammar topic into context – that’s why we offer the Conversation Based Chunking method for free. Here’s what we talk about:

Ana: ¿Has visto unas películas interesantes últimamente? (Have you seen any interesting movies lately?)
Gabriel: Sí, he visto unas comedias muy divertidas. ¿Y tú? (Yes, I’ve seen some very funny comedies. And you?)
Ana: He visto unas documentales sobre la naturaleza. Son impactantes. (I’ve watched some documentaries about nature. They are impactful.)
Gabriel: ¡Eso suena genial! Deberíamos ver unas juntas. (That sounds great! We should watch some together.)

2. Use Spanish indefinite articles with ‘hay’

There’s another case in Spanish where you would have to use an indefinite article in Spanish!

Just to make things a bit more complicated 🙂

You use Spanish indefinite articles with the verb ‘hay‘, meaning ‘there is/there are). Hay is used when you want to express that there is a thing that is non-specific, but you want to emphasize that it actually exists.

Also, you don’t specify it, you just want to say that yes, it’s here, you have to know about it:

Confusing? No worries, here it is in a conversation:

Pablo: ¿Hay un perro en el jardín? (Is there a dog in the garden?)
Lucía: Sí, hay un perro grande. (Yes, there is a big dog.)
Pablo: ¿Hay unas flores también? (Are there some flowers as well?)
Lucía: Sí, hay unas flores hermosas. (Yes, there are some beautiful flowers.)

Pablo asks if ‘hay un perro‘ (there is a dog) and then he follows up with another expression, ‘hay unas flores‘ (there are some flowers). In both of these cases, the indefinite articles show that these things exist in the garden, but we don’t know what kind of a dog that is, or what kind of flowers he’s talking about.

3. Omit articles in 6 cases: professions, idioms, concepts, ser otro, con/sin

Lucky for you, sometimes there are examples where you don’t have to use indefinite articles. In these cases, the article is not necessary.

Why?

Well, most of the time, it’s pretty clear that you want to express a general statement about a thing or person that you’re talking about. In this blog post, we’ll list 6 cases where you can omit indefinite articles.

Don’t use articles in Spanish with professions/nationality/religion

The first situation where the use of indefinite articles is often omitted is when stating someone’s profession, nationality, or religion. The article isn’t necessary because the sentence is already saying a general statement about the person’s role or identity.

Like here, where Isabel say his father is a teacher:

Fernando: ¿Qué hace tu padre? (What does your father do?)
Isabel: Es profesor. (He is a teacher.)
Fernando: ¡Qué interesante! ¿En qué enseña? (How interesting! What does he teach?)
Isabel: Enseña matemáticas. (He teaches mathematics.)

Let’s look at the next situation!

Don’t use indefinite articles in Spanish with fixed Spanish idioms

There are some fixed expressions or common Spanish idioms where you don’t need the articles. 

These Spanish idioms are already well understood without it.

For example, in this convo, “en trabajo“, “en nubes“, “volver a realidad” are common, fixed expressions, so you don’t need it:

María: ¿Cómo te va en trabajo? (How is it going at work?)
Luis: Más o menos, estoy en nubes. (So-so, I’m daydreaming.)
María: ¿Por qué no pones pies en tierra? (Why don’t you get your feet on the ground?)
Luis: Tienes razón, necesito volver a realidad. (You’re right, I need to get back to reality.)
María: ¡Ánimo! Todo saldrá bien. (Cheer up! Everything will turn out fine.)

Don’t include articles with ‘ser’

The third situation where the use of indefinite articles is usually omitted is when you’re descrbing characteristics or qualities using the verb “ser.”

In these cases, the article is usually dropped. This makes the statement more direct and general:

Sofia: ¿Quién es ese hombre? (Who is that man?)
Javier: Es ingeniero. (He is an engineer.)
Sofia: ¿De dónde es? (Where is he from?)
Javier: Es de España. (He is from Spain.)

In this dialogue, Javier omits the indefinite article when stating “es ingeniero” (he is an engineer), which is typical in Spanish when discussing someone’s profession or identity, and it also applies to the usage of ser in Spanish.

Don’t use indefinite Spanish articles with general concepts

The fourth situation where the use of indefinite articles is omitted is… when you’re talking about general concepts or categories.

The statement in these cases is about a broad, bigger idea. So, the article isn’t necessary:

Here, Carlos refers to “la educación” (education) in a general sense.  While “la” is a definite article in Spanish, the concept itself is treated as a general idea without needing an indefinite article.

Ana: ¿Qué opinas sobre la educación? (What do you think about education?)
Carlos: La educación es fundamental. (Education is fundamental.)
Ana: Sí, es la base para el futuro. (Yes, it is the foundation for the future.)
Carlos: Exactamente. La igualdad en la educación es importante. (Exactly. Equality in education is important.)

Spanish grammar tip: omit indefinite articles with otro/cierto/medio

In the following cases, the words imply a non-specific quantity or type, which makes the use of an article unnecessary:

• otro (another)
• cierto (certain)
• medio/media (half)

Look for this rule in the next conversation:

Lucía: ¿Tienes otro libro? (Do you have another book?)
Pablo: Sí, tengo uno que es muy interesante. (Yes, I have one that is very interesting.)
Lucía: ¿Y qué tal un medio sandwich? (And how about a half sandwich?)
Pablo: Claro, tengo uno en la nevera. (Sure, I have one in the fridge.)
Lucía: ¿Te gustaría cierto tipo de música? (Would you like a certain type of music?)
Pablo: Sí, prefiero música clásica. (Yes, I prefer classical music.)

Articles and prepositions: con and sin don’t require indefinite articles

When you’re using the prepositions

• con (with) and
• sin (without)

the indefinite articles are typically omitted before nouns. This is because the focus is on the presence or absence of the item rather than specifying it.

Look for ‘sin azúcar‘ (without sugar) and ‘sin gluten‘ (without gluten) and two more examples with con in these cases:

María: ¿Quieres un café con leche? (Do you want a coffee with milk?)
Carlos: No, prefiero café sin azúcar. (No, I prefer coffee without sugar.)
María: Entendido. ¿Te gustaría algo con chocolate? (Understood. Would you like something with chocolate?)
Carlos: Sí, me encanta el pastel sin gluten. (Yes, I love cake without gluten.)

4. Practice indefinite articles in Spanish with our exercises

Fill in the blanks with the correct words – indefinite articles in Spanish!

You can practice more topics in Spanish if you sign up now:

5. Learn the four Spanish indefinite articles naturally with Conversation Based Chunking

You might’ve already realized that we teach with lots and lots of examples. Because that’s exactly where the power of Conversation Based Chunking lies.

If you focus on the lexical chunks in these examples and conversations, you’ll acquire the correct usage of indefinite articles in Spanish naturally. And all of this happens without spending too much time on learning grammar.

If you’re interested, we can explain everything in detail, and we don’t expect anything in exchange.