Why el agua instead of la agua

Both agua and à ¡guila, which mean water and eagle, respectively, are feminine nouns. Yet we say el agua and el à ¡guila, making exceptions to the rule that la is used with feminine nouns. The reason has to do with pronunciation — la agua would sound the same as lagua and might be confusing. But language is seldom logical, so dont try substituting el for la whenever a word that starts with a- follows. Learn more...