"Los elefantes beben agua."
Translation:The elephants drink water.
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what animals are only male or female. there are los gatos and una gata but only el caballo. Would a filly be la caballa?
More than can be typed out here! :)
You are correct that some animals have both masculine and feminine word counterparts, like with 'un/los gato(s)' or 'una/las gata(s)'. That said though, not all animal genders follow this pattern.
In your second example, 'el caballo' can refer to simply a horse that you don't know the gender of, or a male horse/stallion. 'La caballa', on the other hand is not a horse at all, but a type of fish (mackerel)! 'La yuega' would be the word you are looking for if you wanted to say a female horse/mare.
(Nitpicking now, but a filly is actually a young female horse, and would be 'la potranca') :) Included below is an excerpt from more in-depth explanation of the topic, with the link included at the end!
- Some animals have both a masc. & fem. form that look very similar (e.g. '
un/una perr
o/a
' or 'un/una gat
o/a
')- And some use the same word regardless of animal's gender, even though they may look similar to other gendered nouns. (e.g. '
un cangrej
o
(m.)', 'una jiraf
a
(f.)' or 'un rinoceront
e
(m.)')- Some may have different words for both genders (e.g. '
un toro
(m.)'/'una vaca
(f.)' or 'un caballo
(m.)'/'una yegua
(f.)')- And sometimes the word that looks like the word for the opposite gender means something totally different (e.g. '
un pato
(m.; 'a duck')' & 'una pata
(f.; 'a leg')')
Speaking of la caballa and mackerel, the kind of fish we now call "tuna" used to be called "horse mackerel". "Tuna sandwich" sounds better somehow than "horse mackerel sandwich", doesn't it?