Learn Italian: A Guide To Learning The Basics of A New Language (2015)

Chapter 15. Grammar

Articles (gli articoli)

In Italian, nouns have number and gender and these are indicated by the article that refers to the noun. Nouns are either masculine or feminine and there is no neuter gender.

There are two main types of articles in the Italan language: the deterinativi (definite articles) an indeterminative (indefinite articles) and all must agree in number and gender with the noun they are modifying.

The article forms vary depending on the gender, number, and the first letter of the noun they modify.

Definite articles

Definite articles are used to modify nouns which refer to a specific person, place, thing, or idea. They are the equivalent of the article “the” in the English language.

There are two forms for the singular definite masculine article: “il” for words that start with a consonant and “lo” for words that start with s plus any of the consonant y, z, x, i, ps or pn. “Lo” changes to “l’” when the word that follows begins with either a vowel or “h”.

The feminine article only has one singular form and one plural from. The article “la”, however, can be contracted to “l’” if the first letter of the following word is a vowel. Contraction is not allowed for feminine plural form.

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Indefinite Articles

Indefinite articles are used to introduce a singular noun which is not specifically identified. Italian indefinite articles correspond to the English articles “a” and “an” and to the number one. There are no indefinite articles for plural nouns which either take the partitive articles or none at all.

Uno is used to modify masculine singular nouns that start with s+consonant, z and several nouns foreign-derived words starting with gn, pn, ps, x, or y+vowel.

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Un is used to modify masculine singular nouns that start with a consonant or a vowel except in cases where the article uno had to be used.

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Una is placed before feminine nouns which start with a consonant.

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The article un’ is the elision of the indefinite article “una” and it precedes feminine singular nouns starting with a vowel.

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Partitive articles (Articoli partitivi)

The partitive article refers to an indefinite quantity or part of a whole and conveys the English words “some” or “any” in Italian. It is formed by combining the preposition “di” which is changed to “de” with the definite article required by the noun that it is introducing. Partitive articles are used under the rules governing definite articles.

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