Understanding Apostrofo, Elisione, and Troncamento in Italian

An interactive lesson guiding you from key takeaways to expert insights. Comes with Q&A, useful vocabulary, interactive audio, quizzes and games.

L'amico è venuto a trovarmi.
L'amico è venuto a trovarmi.
L'amico è venuto a trovarmi.
Published Feb 13, 2024
Updated Oct 16, 2024
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Written by

Key Takeaways

  • The apostrophe in Italian indicates elisione and troncamento, helping to create smoother and more fluid speech.
  • Elision occurs when a word ending in a vowel is followed by another starting with a vowel or mute "h", merging them with an apostrophe.
  • Truncation involves permanently shortening a word, often by dropping the final vowel, and does not always require an apostrophe.
  • Examples of elisione include l’amica from la amica and l’uomo from lo uomo.
  • Common truncations include gran from grande and san or sant’ from santo.

Audio images

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L'amico è venuto a trovarmi.
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L'amico è venuto a trovarci.
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Lo studente prende l'autobus.

Main Article

Apostrophe, Elision, and Truncation in Italian

Italian is celebrated for its smooth and flowing sound. On the one hand, this is due do the fact that most Italian words end with a vowel.

On the other hand, it is thanks to some essential linguistic tools, like apostrofo (apostrophe), elisione (elision), and troncamento (truncation).

In Italian, the apostrophe is a graphic symbol used to indicate both elision and truncation, two mechanisms that streamline sentences, making them easier to pronounce and helping maintain the natural rhythm of the language.

Basically, the apostrophe marks where parts of words have been omitted for smoother pronunciation, due to either elision or truncation.

Although apostrofo, elisione, and troncamento follow different rules, they work together to ensure that Italian remains as fluid and melodic as possible.

Here, I will show you how the apostrophe is used in Italian when truncation and elision are needed.

Apostrophe in Italian

Elision

Elision occurs when two words are placed next to each other and the first word ends with a vowel while the next one begins with a vowel or a mute “h”. Its use makes sure that awkward pauses are avoided when speaking.

The apostrophe is inserted in place of the missing vowel to show that the two words have been merged. This process is most commonly seen with definite articles and indefinite articles, prepositions, and pronouns, for example:

  • la amica becomes l’amica (the friend, female)
  • lo uomo becomes l’uomo (the man)
  • di estate becomes d’estate (in the summer)

There are some cases where elision is not possible: with plural articles, and with the masculine singular indefinite article un. Let me show you some examples:

  • le amiche (the female friends)
  • gli alberi (the trees)
  • un uomo (a man)
  • un albero (a tree)

Truncation

Truncation involves the permanent shortening of a word, usually by dropping the final vowel or syllable. Unlike elision, most of the truncated forms are fixed. When this is the case, no apostrophe is needed.

Truncation is commonly used with adjectives that precede masculine nouns and, depending on whether or not the next word starts with a vowel, it can makes use of the apostrophe to mark this change, as you can see from the examples below:

  • GrandeGran

Grande (big/great) is truncated to gran before singular nouns, whether the noun starts with a vowel or a consonant. No apostrophe is needed because the truncation is fixed.

    • Un gran giorno (a great day)
    • Una gran occasione (a great opportunity)
  • SantoSan / Sant’

The word santo (saint) is truncated in two ways: it becomes san before a name that starts with a consonant, and it becomes sant’ before a name that begins with a vowel, with an apostrophe marking the omitted “o”.

    • San Marco (Saint Mark)
    • Sant’Antonio (Saint Anthony)
  • BuonoBuon

Buono (good) is truncated to buon before all masculine nouns, whether they start with a consonant or a vowel. No apostrophe is needed.

    • Un buon amico (a good friend)
    • Un buon uomo (a good man)
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When the noun is feminine, neither truncation nor elision are necessary:

    • Una buona amica (a good friend)
  • BelloBel / Bell’

The adjective bello (beautiful/handsome) is truncated as bel before singular masculine nouns that take the article il, without an apostrophe, and as bell’ before masculine or feminine nouns that begin with a vowel, with an apostrophe:

    • Un bel libro (a beautiful book)
    • Un bell’amico (a handsome friend, male)
    • Una bell’amica (a beautiful friend, female)
  • UnoUn

The indefinite article uno is truncated to un before masculine nouns, whether the noun starts with a vowel or consonant. No apostrophe is used.

    • Un albero (a tree)
    • Un uomo (a man)

The adverb poco (a little) is truncated to po’, with an apostrophe indicating the omission of the final letters “co”.

    • Un po’ di tempo (a little time)
    • Aspetta un po’ (wait a little)

Key Terms and Concepts

Words

l'amicothe friend
l'isolathe island
l'orathe hour
l'acquathe water
l'hoI have
dell'amoreof the love
l'albathe dawn
l'erbathe grass
l'hotelthe hotel
l'ideathe idea

Phrases

l'amicothe friend
l'animathe soul
l'ho vistoI saw it
l'alberothe tree
un'amicaa friend (female)
un'orologioa watch
dell'acquasome water
sull'erbaon the grass
nell'ombrain the shadow
questo è l'this is the

Sentences

L'amore è un sentimento profondo.

Love is a deep feeling.

L'ho visto ieri al mercato.

I saw him yesterday at the market.

L'amica di Sara è arrivata tardi.

Sara's friend arrived late.

L'estate in Italia è molto calda.

Summer in Italy is very hot.

Non l'ho mai incontrato prima.

I have never met him before.

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