Articles
The Italian words for the and a change according to the gender and first letter of the noun.
Italian has no single word for the. The definite article depends on the noun's gender, number and opening sound: il (masculine, before most consonants), lo (masculine, before s + consonant, z, gn, ps and a few other clusters), l' (before a vowel, both genders), la (feminine, before a consonant). Plurals: i, gli, le.
The indefinite article (a, an) follows a similar pattern: un (masculine), uno (masculine before the same special clusters as lo), una (feminine), un' (feminine before a vowel).
Italian uses the definite article far more than English — with languages, countries, abstract nouns and likes: L'italiano è bello (Italian is beautiful), Mi piace la musica (I like music).
Examples
- il libro the book
- lo studente the (male) student
- l'amica the (female) friend
- la casa, le case the house, the houses
- un caffè, uno zaino, una pizza, un'arancia a coffee, a rucksack, a pizza, an orange
Common mistake
Using il before words like studente or zaino (il studente) — words starting with s + consonant or z take lo/uno: lo studente, uno zaino.