Italian Grammar Lessons: Definite and Indefinite articles

In this lesson you will learn about the use of articles in Italian.
Articles can be definite or indefinite, it depends if they refer to a known object or not and they
can help you identify the gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the nouns
they refer to, as they change depending on that.

DEFINITE ARTICLES

 Use articles il (singular) and i (plural) for masculine nouns that start with a consonant.
Examples: il libro / i libri (the book / the books)
il gatto / i gatti (the cat / the cats)

 Words that begin with x, y, z and with the groups gn, pn, ps, s + consonant need the
articles lo (singular) and gli (plural)
Examples:
lo zio / gli zii (the uncle / the uncles)
lo gnomo / gli gnomi (the dwarf / the dwarfs)
lo psicologo / gli psicologi (the psychologist / the psychologists)
lo specchio, lo studente, gli spaghetti

 For feminine nouns, use la (singular) and le (plural) for all the nouns (without
distinction with regard to the first letters.)
Examples:
la matita / le matite (the pencil / the pencils)
la casa / le case (the house / the houses)

 For both the masculine and feminine gender, you need to be careful with singular nouns
which start with a vowel, as the article is elided and written with an apostrophe: lo/la →
l’
Examples:
masculine nouns: l’ errore / gli errori (the mistake / the mistakes)
feminie nouns: l’ aula / le aule (the classroom / the classrooms)
INDEFINITE ARTICLES

Unlike with definite articles, the indefinite article is only used with singular nouns and so only
changes according to the gender.

 The article un is used with masculine nouns starting with a vowel or a consonant
Examples:
un aereo (an airplane)
un treno (a train)

 However, with words starting with x, y, z and the groups gn, pn, ps, sc you have to use
the article uno.
Examples:
uno zaino (a backpack)
uno scoiattolo (a squirrel)

 The article una is used for feminine singular nouns starting with a consonant.
Examples:
una palla (a ball)
una scena (a scene)

 As before, the indefinite feminine form also needs to be elided when followed by a word
starting with a vowel: una → un’
Examples:
un’ isola (an island)
un’ automobile (a car)