L'articolo determinativo— The Definite Article

This is the grammatical name for the English word “the”.

1 Feminine nouns — easy.

If the feminine noun is singular, use LA (or abbreviate it to L'if the noun begins with a vowel). If the feminine noun is plural use LE and never abbreviate it, even if the noun begins with a vowel. For example:

singular
plural
   la ragazza

   le ragazze
   la casa    le case
   l'ora    le ore
   l'erba    le erbe
   la chiave

   le chiavi
   la notte    le notti
   l'opinione    le opinioni
   l'opportunità    le opportunità

 

2 Masculine nouns — tricky.

There is only one word for "the" for feminine nouns, but before a masculine noun you need to choose between IL and LO. You make the choice depending on how the masculine noun begins. You should find that you choose IL most of the time. Here are the rules:

  1. Use IL and its plural I when the masculine noun begins with a consonant.
  2. Use LO and its plural GLI when the masculine noun begins with a vowel, or z or “impure s” — i.e. the letter s followed by another consonant. LO can be abbreviated to L' before a word beginning with a vowel.
  3. Remember that any nouns borrowed from another language are masculine and have no plural.

This table summarises all you need to know about masculine nouns and there articles:

singular
plural
   il ragazzo    i ragazzi
   il ristorante    i ristoranti
   l'albergo    gli alberghi
   lo sbaglio    gli sbagli
   lo zio    gli zii
   l'ufficiale    gli ufficiali
   lo sport    gli sport
   il film    i film

If you can master how to change words from singular to plural a huge amount of Italian grammar will become very easy. It is vital that you try very hard to master this piece of grammar before you move on.

If you can master the definite article, you will be able to understand and use correctly some necessary but rather tricky pieces of Italian grammar, so try to master this before you move on.

L'articolo indeterminativo — The Indefinite Article

This is the grammatical name for the English word “a”.

1 Feminine nouns — easy.

The word for “a” before a feminine noun is una which can be abbreviated to un' if the noun begins with a vowel.

2 Masculine nouns — less easy.

The usual word is un which is used before all masculine nouns (including those which begin with a vowel) except those which begin with z or s impure. Study the following table which should explain it all.

masculine
feminine
   un ragazzo    una ragazza
   un amico    un'amica
   un ospedale    un'intezione
   uno sconto    una scarpa
   uno specchio    una specie
   uno zingaro    una zingara
   un salmone    una salsiccia
   un trattore    una trattoria

Exercise 2 : Put the Definite Article (il/lo/l'/la/l') in front of each of the following singular nouns;
if you are not immediately sure of the gender of the noun, check in a dictionary.

1) ..... paesino 6) .... madre

2) ..... stanza

 7) .... padre
3) ..... stato 8) .... umidità
4) ..... acqua 9) .... zucchero
5) .....occhio 10) .... insalata

Exercise 3: Put the Indefinite Article (un/uno/una/un') in front of each of the following nouns;
if you are not immediately sure of the gender of the noun, check in a dictionary.

1) ..... paesino 6) .... madre

2) ..... stanza

 7) .... padre
3) ..... stato 8) .... orecchio
4) ..... opinione 9) .... zero
5) .....occhio 10) .... insalata

Exercise 4: change all the following phrases into the plural:

  1. la sera
  2. la stazione
  3. l'uva
  4. l'idea
  5. il libro
  6. il dente
  7. lo strumento
  8. lo studente
  9. l'ospedale
  10. l'uccello

To check your answers click here

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