Italian articles and articulated prepositions

Italian nouns are masculine or feminine, and the article in front of them shows which. Unlike English, Italian has several forms of "the", because the right one depends on the first sound of the word that follows. Then, when a preposition comes before the article, the two usually fuse into one word: di + il becomes del. Both ideas look tidy in a table and become automatic with practice.

The definite article (the)

Gender and number	Before	Article	Example
Masculine singular	most consonants	il	il libro, il padre
Masculine singular	s + consonant, z, gn, ps, x, y	lo	lo studente, lo zio
Masculine singular	a vowel	l'	l'amico, l'albero
Masculine plural	most consonants	i	i libri
Masculine plural	s + consonant, z, vowels	gli	gli studenti, gli amici
Feminine singular	a consonant	la	la casa, la sorella
Feminine singular	a vowel	l'	l'amica, l'estate
Feminine plural	any sound	le	le case, le amiche

The article changes with the next word. So il bravo studente ("the good student") but lo studente bravo.

The indefinite article (a, an)

Form	Use	Example
un	masculine, most sounds	un libro, un amico
uno	masculine, s + consonant, z, gn, ps	uno studente, uno zaino
una	feminine, before a consonant	una casa
un'	feminine, before a vowel	un'amica

Notice that un has no apostrophe for the masculine (un amico), but the feminine takes one (un'amica).

Gender in a glance

Most nouns in -o are masculine, and most in -a are feminine: il ragazzo, la ragazza.
Nouns in -e can be either, so learn the article with the noun: il fiore, la notte.
Some nouns in -ma from Greek are masculine: il problema, il programma, il sistema.
Plurals: -o becomes -i, -a becomes -e, and -e becomes -i: i ragazzi, le ragazze, i fiori, le notti.

Articulated prepositions

Five common prepositions combine with the definite article: di, a, da, in, su. The others (con, per, tra, fra) stay separate in modern Italian.

Preposition	il	lo	l'	la	i	gli	le
di	del	dello	dell'	della	dei	degli	delle
a	al	allo	all'	alla	ai	agli	alle
da	dal	dallo	dall'	dalla	dai	dagli	dalle
in	nel	nello	nell'	nella	nei	negli	nelle
su	sul	sullo	sull'	sulla	sui	sugli	sulle

In use

The partitive: some

To say "some" before a plural or an uncountable noun, Italian uses di plus the article, so it looks like the table above: Vorrei dei pomodori ("I would like some tomatoes"), Prendo del pane ("I will have some bread"). You can often leave it out in speech.

Places and countries

Choose a for cities and in for countries and regions: Vivo a Milano, abito in Italia, vado in Toscana. Use a and in without an article in these set phrases: a casa, in macchina, in centro, a scuola, in vacanza.

Common mistakes

Using il before an s + consonant word: il studente should be lo studente.
Forgetting the fusion: Vado a il mercato should be Vado al mercato.
Using di without the article in the partitive: Voglio di pane should be Voglio del pane or just Voglio il pane.
Writing un amica. The feminine takes an apostrophe: un'amica.

Practice

Spoken Italian blends these words together, which is part of why it sounds so musical. For the sound of it, read the pronunciation guide.