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italian articles
By Michael Cristiano Last updated:

The Definitive Guide to Italian Articles for Learning Them… Indefinitely

Definite and indefinite articles are the cornerstone of Italian grammar.

They play a crucial part in the Italian phrase and you need to understand articles if you want to understand Italian.

So let’s learn what the Italian articles are and how to use them correctly!

Contents

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Getting Started with Italian Articles

In Italian, like in many languages, there are two types of articles.

Indefinite articles denote a noun but don’t refer to a specific noun (think of “a” or “an” in English).

Definite articles denote a specific noun (think of “the” in English).

In addition to these two types of articles, Italian further categorizes articles in a way that English doesn’t: grammatical gender and number. In Italian, both types of articles (indefinite and definite) change depending on the gender and number of the noun that follows them.

That means that there are separate articles for masculine and feminine nouns as well as for whether a noun is singular or plural.

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of Italian articles!

Italian Indefinite Articles

First thing’s first: indefinite articles are used to refer to a non-specific noun. For example, this is the equivalent to saying “a duck” or “an apple” in English. It can be any duck and any apple.

In contrast to English’s two indefinite articles, Italian has three indefinite articles:

  • Un is used for masculine singular nouns (generally, words that end in -o). 
  • Uno is also used for masculine singular nouns; however, these masculine nouns must start with a z, ps, pn, x, y, gn or s + consonant.
  • Una is used for feminine singular nouns (generally, words that end in -a). Do note, however, that una shortens to un’ before a vowel.

Unlike certain other languages, there’s no plural, indefinite article in Italian.

Check out these examples to see the indefinite articles in action!

Un amico viene a casa mia. (A friend comes to my house.)

Ho fatto uno sbaglio. (I made a mistake.)

Uso una penna per scrivere. (I use a pen to write.)

Ha parlato per un’ora. (She talked for an hour.)

Italian Definite Articles

Unlike an indefinite article, definite articles are used to refer to a specific noun. For example, this would be like saying “the duck” or “the apple” in English, which implies that you’re speaking about a specific duck or apple.

While there’s only one of these in English, there are actually seven definite articles in Italian. I know that’s a pretty big number, but don’t panic. Their use is pretty logical and pretty regular.

Let’s break them down:

  • Il is used for masculine singular nouns (generally, words that end in -o). In the plural form, however, these same nouns take i.
  • Lo is used for masculine singular nouns that start with a z, ps, pn, x, y, gn or an s + consonant. In the plural, these same nouns take gli. 

Note that these words are also the same masculine words that take uno when using the indefinite article. Further, gli is also used with masculine plural nouns that start with a vowel.

  • La is used for feminine nouns. In the plural, la becomes le.
  • L’ is paired with nouns that start with a vowel, both masculine and feminine.

Check out these definite articles in action!

Il cane mangia. (The dog eats.)

I ragazzi giocano a calcio. (The boys play soccer.)

Ho visto lo specchio. (I saw the mirror.)

Lei ha mangiato gli gnocchi. (She ate the gnocchi.)

La ragazza balla. (The girl dances.)

Abbiamo toccato le farfalle. (We touched the butterflies.)

Dov’è l’uomo? (Where’s the man?)

L’isola è bella. (The island is pretty.)

Using Italian Definite Articles with Prepositions

In addition to the masculine, feminine and plural forms of the definite articles in Italian, definite articles also combine with certain Italian prepositions. Since this post focuses on articles, we won’t go into many details about prepositions here, so be sure to check out more information about Italian prepositions to get a fuller understanding of them.

Here, we’ll just see how prepositions interact with articles.

When you use an article after a preposition in Italian, you make something similar to a contraction in English. For example, when placed together, the word “they” and the word “are” combine to become “they’re” in English. A similar process happens between prepositions and definite articles in Italian, too.

However, be careful! Unlike in English, most of these article and preposition contractions in Italian aren’t optional: they’re obligatory, and you must make such combinations when you use the two words beside each other.

Check out the most common combinations.

a (to)

Ho dato la mela al cane. (I gave the apple to the dog.)

Ha dato la penna allo studente. (He gave the pen to the student.)

Lei non crede alla sua versione. (She doesn’t believe his version.)

Abbiamo fatto un regalo all’avvocato. (We gave a gift to the lawyer.)

Non tengo ai loro consigli. (I don’t care about their advice.)

Lui scrive agli amici. (He writes to his friends.)

Avete pensato alle case? (Did you think about the houses?)

di (of)

Ho bisogno del computer. (I need the computer.)

Questo è il cappello dello zio. (This is the uncle’s hat.)

Guarda la macchina della ragazza. (Look at the girl’s car.)

L’alveare è la casa dell’ape. (A hive is the bee’s home.)

Lei ha paura dei ragni. (She’s scared of spiders.)

È un regalo degli angeli. (It’s a gift of the angels.)

Ho trovato le borse delle ragazze. (I found the girls’ bags.)

da (from)

Ho preso lo zaino dall’armadio. (I took the backpack from the closet.)

Sono tornato dallo zoo. (I returned from the zoo.)

Lei viene dalla Francia. (She comes from France.)

Torno dall’Italia domani. (I return from Italy tomorrow.)

Andiamo dai signori Ferrari. (Let’s go to the Ferraris’ house.)

Noi siamo tornati dagli zii. (We returned from our aunt’s and uncle’s.)

Quando tornate dalle vacanze? (When do you return from vacation?)

in (in)

La gomma è nell’astuccio? (Is the eraser in the pencil case?)

La penna è nello zaino. (The pen is in the backpack.)

C’è ancora vino nella bottiglia. (There is still wine in the bottle.)

La scrivania è nell’ufficio. (The desk is in the office.)

Ci sono i fiori nei giardini. (There are flowers in the gardens.)

Vedi gli uccelli negli alberi? (Do you see the birds in the trees?)

Ci sono sostanze chimiche dannose nelle sigarette. (There are harmful chemicals in cigarettes.)

su (on)

La bottiglia è sul tavolo. (The bottle is on the table.)

La ragazza riflette sul suo sbaglio. (The girl reflects on her mistake.)

Ho trovato i documenti sulla scrivania. (I found the documents on my desk.)

Dove sono i libri sull’amore? (Where are the books about love?)

Il ragazzo pesa sui quaranta chili. (The boy weighs about 40 kilograms.)

Concentrati sugli alberi! (Concentrate on the trees!)

Ci sono volute sulle sei ore per fare l’esame. (It took about six hours to take the exam.)

con (with)

Ho camminato col professore. (I walked with the professor.)

La donna giocava coi cani. (The woman was playing with the dogs.)

Keep in mind that the combinations con + il = col and con + i = coi are optional. This means you can make this contraction if you’d like, but not making it is also acceptable in Italian.

More Rules and a Few Exceptions!

While the above rules for using indefinite and definite articles hold true in the majority of circumstances, there are a few exceptions that you should be aware of.

For starters, our rules for the grammatical gender aren’t as clear-cut as I made them seem—but the exceptions are pretty easy to remember.

In addition to nouns ending in -o, the following words are masculine and take the articles un and il:

  • Words that end in -è, like caffè (coffee),
  • Words that end in -ì, like tassì (taxi)
  • Words that end in -amma, like programma (program)
  • Words that end in -ema, like problema (problem)
  • Words that end in -ore, like colore (color)

In addition to the nouns ending in -a, the following words are feminine and take the articles una and la:

  • Words that end in -ù, like virtù (virtue)
  • Words that end in -ione, like presentazione (presentation)
  • Words that end in -si, like tesi (thesis)

You should also keep in mind that the definite article is used quite a bit more than in English.

For example, in English, we might be able to say “I like bread” with the definite article “the” missing from the phrase before the word “bread.” However, in Italian, we must add that definite article, to make mi piace il pane (I like bread).

Even things like days of the week and the months of the year get the definite article. So, to say “I play soccer every Sunday,” we’d say la domenica gioco il calcio.

Further, unlike English, we need to add the definite article in addition to the possessive pronoun in Italian. For example, to say “my book” in Italian, we’d get il mio libro where il is the masculine, singular definite pronoun and mio is the possessive pronoun.

However, this rule doesn’t apply when using the possessive to talk about one’s family. For example, to say “my mother,” we’d say mia madre and not la mia madre.

Where to Practice Italian Articles Online

Now that we’ve mastered the Italian articles, we should practice them! Here are a few places where you can do this:

 

Whew! That was definitely a close one.

I can’t articulate how much of the good time you’ll have on your Italy trip now. Buon viaggio! (Have a good trip!)

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