"La balena è un animale."

Translation: The whale is an animal.

[Jeffrey855877]

The fast audio pronounces balena as if it were spelled balina, but the slow audio says balena

[vincemat]

At first I thought he said "L'ape è un animale". Then I listened to it in slow motion and found out it was actually "La balena è un animale"...

...which is one "whale" of a difference.

[talkdolly]

if balena is masculine why does it end in a and you use the fem article...la

[Rae.F]

Balena is not masculine. Balena is feminine.

[talkdolly]

thank you...been on my computer for way too long today.

[Rae.F]

I think you meant to reply to me, but you missed.

If it's because "animale" is masculine, then you need to remember that only adjectives change to agree with their nouns. Nouns never change to agree with other nouns.