Hola!
In my last post I talked about VOY (I GO or I’M GOING).
In the examples I used there, I chose FEMININE nouns to accompany the verb IR (TO GO).
I did this deliberately because, over the years I have been teaching Spanish, I have seen that FEMININE nouns and adjectives tend to be mentioned as an aside, an add-on, and sometimes not even written out for students to learn effectively.
I’m determined to change that, by introducing FEMININE forms in Spanish grammar first!
Some examples from that post nouns considered FEMININE in Spanish grammar…
LA CLASE = THE CLASS A LA CLASE = TO THE CLASS
VOY ……A LA CLASE DE ESPAÑOL I go to the Spanish class
VOY …. A LA PELUQUERÍA I go to the hairdresser’s
VOY …. A LA TIENDA I’m going to the shop
VOY …. A LA CASA I’m going to the house
VOY …. A LA ESTACIÓN I’m going to the station
VOY …. A LA PLAZA I’m going to the square
A LA =TO THE (with FEMININE nouns)
However, there are lots of other places you need to talk about, which are considered MASCULINE in Spanish grammar…
For MASCULINE nouns: EL = THE
El trabajo The work
(El trabajo (Pronunciation: tra-ba_HO, with strong emphasis on the HO sound)
El colegio The school
El bar The bar
El mercado The market
El pueblo The town
El museo The museum
In a sentence where you want to talk about going TO one of those places, things change slightly! You might think you could say ‘A EL MERCADO’ for TO THE MARKET. But you CAN’T!
But in Spanish it just doesn’t work like that!
The two vowel sounds of ‘A’ and ‘E’ just don’t go together. They’re difficult to pronounce, so Spanish has just contracted them together, cut out the ‘E’, and solved the problem. SIMPLE REALLY!
“A EL” doesn’t exist. “A EL” is contracted into ONE WORD, by dropping the E, and, HEY PRESTO… the A and L become = AL.
Very clever!
A EL TRABAJO = AL MERCADO = TO THE MARKET
AL = TO THE (with MASCULINE nouns)
VOY AL TRABAJO I go to (the) work
VOY AL COLELGIO I’m going to the school
VOY AL BAR I’m going to the bar
VOY AL MERCADO I go to the market
VOY AL PUEBLO I’m going to the town
VOY AL MUSEO I’m going to the museum
For a review of VOY and its different meanings, see my previous post VOY.
Repeat the sentences aloud. Get used to hearing yourself saying the different words. It really does help fix the patterns in your mind.
See a previous post about the benefits of repetition in language learning
Make up several sentences, relevant to your OWN life, using VOY and A LA or AL.
IF YOU NEED ANY HELP, OR JUST MORE CLARIFICATION, LEAVE A COMMENT IN THE BOX BELOW.
I really hope this helps. Let me know if it does.
Speak Out in Spanish! 
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