I'm a Spanish beginner, started with Duolingo some weeks ago. Now I get stuck with one exercise: it's asked to select the right solution for: the weapon is mine. You must select BOTH of the following given solutions to get it right:
El arma es mía
La arma es mía
I understood the following till now: arma is in Spanish a feminine noun, therefore it should be LA arma. But there is a second rule: if la is before a stressed a... (word beginning with a) then the article will change to el. As good as I understand the spelling till now, the first a in arma is the stressed one, therefore it must be EL?
My questions now: 1. is it LA arma or EL arma 2. what is the proper rule behind the right solution 3. then it cannot be la AND el, both as correct solutions, right?
Thanks for any enlightenment in my EL-LA confusion.
PS. I tried to search in several dictionaries and translation sites. El is the one given most of the times, but without a reason/rule of the translation.