Why we say "el agua" if "water" in Spanish is a feminine noun?

Question

grammar exceptions

Answer 1

In Spanish, "agua" is grammatically feminine — but we say “el agua” instead of “la agua” in order to avoid repetition of the sound "A".

We say> el agua fría NO frío.

Similar words: el alma rota - the broken soul

el águila herida - the wounded eagle

Answer 2

In Spanish, the word "agua" is indeed a feminine noun ("el agua"), but there's a linguistic rule that explains why we use the masculine article "el" instead of the feminine "la" in this case.

Although "agua" is feminine, it begins with a stressed "a" sound (the /a/ sound in "agua" is accented). To avoid the awkward combination of two vowel sounds that could be difficult to pronounce (the "la" and "a"), Spanish speakers use the masculine article "el," which helps make the pronunciation smoother. This rule applies to other feminine nouns that start with a stressed "a" sound, such as "el alma" (the soul) or "el águila" (the eagle).

So, it’s more about ease of pronunciation than grammatical gender, which is why we say "el agua" instead of "la agua."