El águila vuela muy alto.

very

Breakdown of El águila vuela muy alto.

• alto: high
• volar: to fly
• el águila: the eagle

Questions & Answers about El águila vuela muy alto.

Why is it el águila and not la águila if águila is feminine?

Because águila is a feminine noun that begins with a stressed a sound. In Spanish, singular feminine nouns like this usually take el instead of la to make pronunciation smoother.

So you say:

el águila
not la águila

But the noun is still feminine. In the plural, the problem disappears, so it becomes:

las águilas

Is águila still feminine, and what words agree with it?

Yes, águila is still feminine.

The change to el only affects the singular article form in this special pattern. Other words normally still show feminine agreement:

el águila blanca
un águila herida
esta águila

So the noun is feminine even though it uses el in the singular.

Why does águila have a written accent?

The accent mark shows that the stress falls on the first syllable:

Á-gui-la

Without the accent, normal Spanish stress rules would make it sound like a-GUI-la, because the word ends in a vowel. That would be incorrect, so the accent mark is necessary.

How is águila pronounced?