Spanish

<p>
	Spanish speakers don't use an indefinite article before an <strong>unmodified</strong> noun when it refers to a concept or idea of something, rather than a particular thing.
	See below how <strong>autor</strong> is not preceded by <strong>un</strong> because it is not modified,
	whereas <strong>profesora</strong> is preceded by <strong>una</strong> because <strong>profesora</strong> is modified by the adjective <strong>joven</strong>.
</p>

<table class="ui fixed celled table">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>I am a writer.</td>
			<td>Soy autor.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>She is a young professor.</td>
			<td>Ella es <strong>una</strong> profesora <strong>joven</strong>.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>I don't have a fatherland.</td>
			<td>No tengo patria.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>I'm wearing a shirt.</td>
			<td>Llevo camisa.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>
	We also don't use an indefinite article after the bold words in the table below.
</p>

<table class="ui fixed celled table">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>We arrive in half an hour.</td>
			<td>Llegamos en <strong>media</strong> hora.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>He writes with a pencil.</td>
			<td>Escribe <strong>con</strong> lápiz.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>We travel without a car.</td>
			<td>Viajamos <strong>sin</strong> coche.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>A certain person is coming tonight.</td>
			<td><strong>Cierta</strong> persona viene esta noche.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>in such a case</td>
			<td>en <strong>tal</strong> caso</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>What a pity!</td>
			<td>¡<strong>Qué</strong> lástima!</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>
	This might seem like a lot to learn, and there will certainly be other cases we have not mentioned here.
	There is no reason to feel frustrated though, since you will develop an intuition for this soon enough.
</p>

When the indefinite article is not used

noun

adjective

determiner

verb

adverb

preposition

interjection

conjunction

pronoun

sentence

phrase

unknown

exclamatory

invariant noun

esta noche

Breakdown of esta noche

Usages of esta noche