Patatas y frijoles

[Cifi]

On Duolingo, this takes the feminine article: "las patatas y frijoles", and I still don't understand why.

I'd be fine with "los patatas y frijoles" (as a set combination, mixed gender), "las patatas y los frijoles" (different things) and "las patatas con frijoles" (set combination with the potatoes being more dominant/important), but Duolingo's way is something I don't get.

Any clues?

Edit: a possible interpretation might be this (specific) potatoes with some (unspecific) beans, but I'm not sure that this is what's going on.

[eI000yo]

*los patatas is impossible in Spanish. Duolingo is also wrong, we never say one thing with an article and other thing without an article. We say the article with all the nouns or we don't use any article. I guess the sentence is Probamos las patatas y frijoles.
The translation is Probamos las patatas y los frijoles or Estamos probando las patatas y los frijoles.

[Cifi]

Thanks, Emilio. But "las patatas con frijoles" might be possible (i.e. in general, unrelated to the Duolingo sentence)? Or do you regard this as incorrect, too?

[Cifi]

And another follow-up question: if two things have the same gender, you don't have to repeat the article, right? (At least I just had a sentence in English from Spanish that didn't repeat it, and there were no comments on this in the sentence discussion.)

[eI000yo]

Thanks, Emilio. But "las patatas con frijoles" might be possible[…]

Of course this sentence is quite usual.

And another follow-up question: if two things have the same gender, you don't have to repeat the article

As a rule of thumb, in Spanish you have to repeat the article. The gender has nothing to do with it and only if you are describing a list of related things is it possible to use the article only with the first item: Las naranjas, limones, mandarinas y pomelos son cítricos. The most important element is the first. But I think the common usage is the article before each article.

Sometimes you get a different result if you use or don't use the articles: Los altos y los rubios que pasen is not Los altos y rubios que pasen. The first sentence includes both groups: tall and blonde, the second sentence only includes tall people who are also blonde.

[Cifi]

Your last example illustrates the different meanings really well, thank you.

I hope I can find that Duolingo sentence once again to check if it could have been something alike.

[Cifi]

And your other example Las naranjas, limones, mandarinas y pomelos son cítricos is surprising to me, too.

So, if the first item is feminine, this determines the gender of the article, but the adjective still is masculine if the list includes both genders?

[eI000yo]

There are three genders in Spanish: generic, masculine and feminine. The so-called masculine is often used as a generic, the default gender. It is masculine only if it is opposed to a feminine.
If you don't know the gender or you have both, you should normally use the generic, usually masculine.
Languages ​​are not mathematics, so the rules are general guidelines.

[Fer²]

Duolingo is also wrong, we never say one thing with an article and other thing without an article.

It is certainly uncommon, but not entirely impossible if you are thinking of both nouns as a single item. In that case, the article matches the gender of the closer noun. See for instance https://www.rae.es/dpd/concordancia#31.

[eI000yo]

It is certainly uncommon, but not entirely impossible if you are thinking of both nouns as a single item. In that case, the article matches the gender of the closer noun. See for instance https://www.rae.es/dpd/concordancia#31.

My fault. I later wrote:

if you are describing a list of related things is it possible to use the article only with the first item

[Fer²]

My fault. I later wrote:

if you are describing a list of related things is it possible to use the article only with the first item

Oops, my bad, should've read the whole thing before chiming in.