"Boys drink water."

Translation: Los niños beben agua.

[sparrowhawk28]

The problem is, this program picks you up if you use 'the' instead of 'a' or vice versa, so if it doesn't ask for 'the' in the question I'm tempted not to put anything in that may lose a heart! (though lost one anyway, obviously).

[pattybg]

This was a really good discussion - thanks everybody I learned from it

[dower009]

Shouldn't it just be "Chicos beben agua." the definite article shouldn't be required.

[caiser]

It's required, we use the definite article most of time.

[Lillilein]

But it is not indicated here, that you have to use it, it is mean. If it is not written with an article in Spanish, I think you could not aks for it in English!

[rambilina]

drop the los, as it is not "the boys...." in english...it is just boys, boys, boys..

[caiser]

In Spanish without the article is really awfull

[chasedaway]

Agreed, it sounds baaaad without the article. It's just one of those things that doesn't SEEM to make sense in English.

[ryan89]

What if you were talking about boys in general, not any specific group of boys. Like "Boys are taller than girls." Does it still need the definite article "los" at the beginning?

[caiser]

Yes. We use the article too, and it is wrong without it.