El señor alquila una bicicleta.

The gentleman rents a bicycle.

Breakdown of El señor alquila una bicicleta.

• una: a, an
• la bicicleta: the bicycle
• alquilar: to rent
• el señor: the gentleman

Questions & Answers about El señor alquila una bicicleta.

Why does the sentence start with el?

El is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

It is used with señor because señor is a masculine singular noun. So:

• el señor = the man / the gentleman / the mister

Spanish usually uses articles more often than English does, so el señor sounds natural here.

Why is it una bicicleta and not un bicicleta?

Because bicicleta is a feminine noun.

In Spanish, nouns have grammatical gender, so the article has to match:

• un = a/an for masculine singular nouns
• una = a/an for feminine singular nouns

So:

• una bicicleta = a bicycle

A common clue is that nouns ending in -a are often feminine, and bicicleta follows that pattern.

What does señor mean exactly?