"esta agua" or "este agua"?

I believe that "esta" is the third conjugation of the verb "to be", not an article.

estoy estamos

estas estais (sp?)

esta estan

If so, it would mean "It is water".

Okay, Andayam, I'm glad you knew, 'cause it's been 30 years or more since I was in high school Spanish!! LOL

Although it is "el agua" (using masculine article to avoid the repetitive "a" sounds next to each other if we say "la agua"), we would say ESTA AGUA, because "agua" is, in fact, feminine. If it were plural, we would say LAS AGUAS (feminine article), not "los aguas"

we are learning about this in spanish. the rule is if the article is feminine so will the noun, vice versa. There are a few exceptions to the rule like el agua or la mano. They are just weird. It doesn't happen to often.

it would be "este agua".

"esta" correlates with femininity because it ends in "a". "este" correlates with masculinity because it ends in "e". since "agua" is a masculine word [because "el agua" is correct, and not "la agua"], thus the masculine pronoun must be used.

esta agua