Language/Italian/Grammar/When-use-LI-and-GLI

What's the difference between "Gli" and "Li" in Italian?

Ciao! Italian learners! 😎

In today's lesson, we will learn how to make the difference between "gli" and "li". "gli" and "li" are often confused because their pronunciation is similar although they do not have the same meaning nor the same grammatical function.

NB : In reality, many Italian learners have a hard time to get the exact pronunciation of GLI. They pronounce Gli the same as Li. See this lesson to learn how to pronounce GLI.

First of all, here is the only thing they have is common: both "gli" and "li" are masculine pronouns.

Li

"Li" is used as a pronoun in the construction of the direct object when it is masculine plural.

For the masculine singular we use "lo". For the feminine singular we use "la", for the feminine plural "le" and for the masculine plural, we use "li".

Example:

• Hai visto i film di Fellini? Sì, li vedo sempre con grande piacere.

Have you seen the Fellini movies? Yes, I always watch them with great pleasure.

Gli

"Gli" is used as a pronoun in the construction of the complement for a masculine singular. For the feminine singular, we use "le". For the plural, we use "a loro", and it is invariable in gender.

Example:

• Giuseppe ha freddo. Non gli hai dato la tua giacca ?

Joseph is cold. Didn't you give him your jacket?

Videos

Let's review Italian definite articles (il, lo, la, i, gli, le)

---

Thanks for your attention and see you later for more Italian lessons. 😊

Feel free to edit this page if you think it can be improved.

Vincent

Sources

• Giorgiotave.it
• https://polyglotclub.com/language/italian/question/155

Related Lessons

• Gender
• Plural
• Negation
• Plurals
• Past Participle in Italian
• Accents
• Nouns
• Accent mark to distinguish a word
• How to Use Have
• Future Tense