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ITALIAN GRAMMAR
FREE RESOURCE
- LEVEL:
BEGINNER
LEARNING TOOLS IN THIS RESOURCE:
SHORT GRAMMAR EXPLANATIONS
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The Italian Definite Article
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In English there is only one definite article for masculine,
feminine, singular and plural: THE.
In Italian there is a whole set of
definite articles, all of which translate the English word THE:
For MASCULINE SINGULAR: IL,
LO or L'
(contracted form)
For MASCULINE PLURAL: I or
GLI
For FEMININE SINGULAR: LA or
L'
For FEMININE PLURAL: LE
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Basically you have to use
MASCULINE SINGULAR
- IL for most words (il sóle, il cièlo, il terréno, il vólo, il cugìno,
il tramónto, il crànio)
- LO for words beginning with
◊ GN (lo gnòmo, lo gnòrri,
lo gnu, lo gnòcco)
◊ I, J or Y when these letters are used
as a semivowel (lo iàto, lo iòta, lo Jònio, lo yèti)
◊ PN (lo pnèuma, lo pneumatico)
NOTE:
nowadays IL is often preferred (il pneumàtico)
◊ PS (lo psicòlogo, lo psicanalìsta, lo
psicodràmma, lo pseudònimo)
◊ S followed by any consonant (lo spàzio, lo strèss, lo scienziàto,
lo sbàglio, lo snack)
◊ X (lo xilòfono, lo xenòfobo)
◊ Z (lo zìo, lo zèro, lo zibìbbo)
- L' for words beginning with a vowel sound (l'àlbero, l'órdine, l'attàcco,
l'indice, l'hotèl).
MASCULINE PLURAL
- I for words using IL in the singular (i cièli, i terréni, i cugìni, i
tramónti)
- GLI for all other words (gli gnòmi, gli yèti, gli psicòlogi, gli spàzi,
gli xilòfoni, gli zìi)
NOTE: words beginning with PN in the singular tend to have the
article I in the plural
FEMININE SINGULAR
- LA for most words (la tèrra, la sorprésa, la guàrdia, la cavallerìa,
la cróce, la strategìa)
- L' for words beginning with a vowel sound (l'ànima, l'àrca, l'amàca,
l'orìgine, l'umidità, l'hòstess)
NOTE: feminine words beginning with H can also use LA (la
hostess).
FEMININE PLURAL
- LE for all words (le tèrre, le sorprése, le ànime, le orìgini)
NOTE: you can still find l' in the feminine plural in poetry
and songs
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ITALIAN GRAMMAR
- The Definite Article
- Stressed and Unstressed
Direct Object Personal Pronouns
- The Second Person Pronoun TU
- Subject After the Verb
- Negative Form
- The Italian Progressive Form
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