un, una, unos, unas – Spanish Indefinite Articles

Welcome 😊 to our grammar lesson on Spanish indefinite articles (“artículos indeterminados”).

Indefinite articles in Spanish are: un – una – unos – unas.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able use these articles properly in sentences.

You will also find a Quiz and an Exercise to practice.

The 4 indefinite articles

In Spanish the article needs to match the noun’s gender and number. For that reason, there are 4 different indefinite articles:

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	un	una
Plural	unos	unas

Their meanings are:

• un, una are equivalent to the English “a”, “an” or “one”
• unos, unas are equivalent to the English “some” or “a few”

Examples with nouns

un + masculine singular noun:

un coche, un profesor, un rayo, un árbol
a car, a teacher, a ray, a tree

una + feminine singular noun:

una casa, una canción, una flor, una mujer
a house, a song, a flower, a woman

unos + masculine plural noun:

unos amigos, unos vasos, unos problemas
some friends, a few glasses, some problems

unas + feminine plural noun:

unas señoras, unas manzanas, unas palabras
a few ladies, some apples, a few words

Sentences with indefinite articles

Here are some example sentences that include indefinite articles:

Hay un hombre en la casa.
There is a man in the house.

Mallorca es una isla de España.
Mallorca is an island of Spain. 

Tengo unos libros interesantes.
I have a few interesting books.

Manuel tiene unas amigas muy simpáticas.
Manuel has some very nice friends. (female friends)

Practice

Quiz

Take this short Quiz about indefinite articles:

Exercise 1

Fill the gaps using “un – una – unos – unas”. Click on the gray spaces to see the solutions.

Note: In this lesson, we haven’t really explained how to guess if a noun is masculine or feminine (we have another lesson for that). But you can try anyway!

1) Laura está con unas amigas.
Laura is with some friends. (female friends)

2) Ella tiene un mensaje para ti.
She has a message for you.

3) Yo tengo unos caramelos muy ricos.
I have some delicious candies.

4) Una cerveza, por favor.
A beer, please.

Exercise 2

More sentences!

5) En la biblioteca hay unos libros muy interesantes.
In the library there are some very interesting books.

6) Un chico de mi clase toca el violín.
A boy in my class plays the violin.

7) Dame una manzana, por favor.
Give me an apple, please.

8) Tenemos unas revistas muy divertidas.
We have some fun magazines.