Use & Nonuse of Articles in Spanish

Question

I wish there were a lesson explaining how the use of articles in Spanish differs from English. For example, "he has a good heart" is "tiene buen corazon" not "un buen corazon". Another example, "I will be in the first row" is "estare en primera fila" and not "en la primera fila".

Jerald Winter · Answer

These are examples of fixed traditional phrases "tiene buen corazón" "en primer fila", that you just learn about in the school of hard knocks with exercises like these. Eventually you will hear or read them enough times that is just feels natural to let some articles go and keep others. In my limited experience, trying to memorize them is just useless and discouraging, I will always make some errors but hopefully less with more exposure and more time. Heck, I continue to make similar errors in English at times and I am not worried about them (unless writing an article or speaking in public.)