Articles in Italian
Articles in linguistics are grammatical items that indicate definiteness or indefiniteness and are, therefore, used to convey a degree of specificity about nouns.
Italian articles agree in gender and number with the nouns they refer to and can be divided into two main groups: definite articles, which I will discuss here, and indefinite articles.
Definite Articles in Italian
7 Ways to say “the” in Italian
Definite articles (articoli determinativi) introduce a specific noun or a known concept, something that was previously mentioned.
They change depending on the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun, and sometimes also depending on its first letter.
Basically, wherever you would use “the” in English, we have a specific Italian counterpart, which depends on the noun it accompanies. Sounds hard, but it’s just a matter of practice, I promise!
Here is an overview of how these articles are used in Italian:
- Masculine articles
- Il (used before most singular masculine nouns starting with a consonant): il libro (the book)
- Lo (used before singular masculine nouns starting with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, x, y): lo zaino (the backpack)
- L’ (used before singular masculine nouns starting with a vowel): l’amico (the friend)
- I (used before most plural masculine nouns starting with a consonant): i libri (the books)
- Gli (used before plural masculine nouns starting with a vowel or the same consonants as “lo”): gli amici (the friends), gli zaini (the backpacks)
- Feminine articles
- La (used before most singular feminine nouns starting with a consonant): la casa (the house)
- L’(used before singular feminine nouns starting with a vowel): l’amica (the friend)
- Le (used before all plural feminine nouns): le case (the houses), le amiche (the friends)
Italian Definite Articles Chart
| Masculine | Feminine | |||
| Singular | Lo | studente (student)
specchio (mirror) zaino (backpack) psicologo (psychologist) |
La | borsa (bag)
casa (house) studentessa (student) psicologa (psicologyst) |
| Il | cameriere (waiter)
sole (sun) libro (book) |
|||
| L’ | amore (love)
insegnante (teacher) uomo (man) |
L’ | attrice (actress)
elettricità (electricity) |
|
| Plural | I | camerieri (waiters)
libri (books) |
Le | borse (bags)
case (houses) studentesse (students) |
| Gli | insegnanti (teachers)
uomini (men) studenti (students) zaini (backpacks) |
|||
When to use Definite Articles?
Let me now show the contexts where you should use definite articles.
- To indicate a particular or specific thing, person, or object:
Hai visto le chiavi di casa?
Have you seen the house keys?
Not all types of keys, but the house keys.
Mi hanno rubato il passaporto.
They stole my passport.
In Italian we do not even use the possessive adjective “my” because the definite article makes it obvious whose passport it is.
- To indicate something that was mentioned previously:
(Maria ha un gatto) Il gatto è bellissimo!
(Maria has a cat) The cat is beautiful!
- To talk about parts of the body:
Mi fa male la testa.
My head hurts.
Luca si è rotto il braccio.
Luca broke his arm.
Here, just like for the passport, it is obvious who these body parts belong to.
- To indicate a category or a species in a generic sense:
Mi piacciono i gatti.
I like cats.
Il cane è il miglior amico dell’uomo.
Dog is man’s best friend.
- Before the name of a language, except when we use the verbs parlare (to speak) or studiare (to study).
In those cases, it’s up to you whether you want to use it or not.
L’italiano è una lingua molto musicale.
Italian is a very musical language.
Mi piace imparare l’italiano.
I like learning Italian.
- To refer to geographical locations:
- Continents: l’America, l’Europa.
- Countries: l’Italia, la Spagna.
- Regions: la Toscana.
- Islands: la Sicilia, il Madagascar.
- Rivers: il Tevere.
- Mountains: il Monte Bianco.
Important to Remember!
It is crucial that you remember that Italian definite articles have different forms depending on the gender and the number of the noun. Learning this will extremely help you when you will start studying Italian nouns, adjectives, and prepositions.
It may seem a bit complicated to learn at first, but once you understand the structure, it’s quite simple to get used to. There you have it! Now you know all about definite articles in Italian.
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