Language/Italian/Grammar/Articles

DEFINITE, INDEFINITE AND PARTITIVE ARTICLES IN ITALIAN

WHAT'S AN ARTICLE

If you come from a language which does not use articles, these grammar elements could be quite difficult to understand.

An article is a word that marks a noun, giving the listener or the reader an important information about how specific or known this noun is, or, on the other hand, how general or unknown it is.

In fact, there are two main kinds of them: the definite articles, usually used to mark specific and known things, and the indefinite articles, usually used to mark general and unknown things. A third kind of articles is also used to mark a part or a certain amount of a thing, that is to say the partitive articles.

Articles are a variable part of the sentence and must be inflected according to gender and number. They are usually put immediately before the noun: sometimes (not so often really), an adjective or a very short little description can stand between the article and its noun.

However, not every noun should always be marked with an article: sometimes it must not be used.

Let us see how articles work in Italian.

DEFINITE ARTICLES

Definite articles are called "Articoli determinativi" in Italian and are the most variable ones. They come from Latin demonstrative adjectives like "those" or "that" and have the purpose to mark specific and well known things. In fact a noun is usually preceded by a definite article:

• when we mean a precise speciment of a concept/noun
• when we mean something we've already desbribed before
• when the thing we are talking about is already well known by the listener
• when the listener or the reader is already able to visualize in his or her head the precise thing we are talking about

For example: if I say "MELA" (meaning "apple") any of us will get a picture of an apple on its mind: but what is it like? Big or small? Green or red? Can I give a context to this apple in some way? I will never be sure.

Saying "LA MELA" (where "LA" is an article and means "THE") means giving "a context" to "apple" which has to be obvious to the listener or the reader: in this case we have a precise image of "the" apple we are talking about, or we know the context in which this "apple" is considered. One of the most important role of a definite article is to bring the listener or the reader to think of a specific and contextualized thing, and not "one of the many possible specifiment of that concept".

You could almost imagine the definite articles to stand in place of a sentence like "the well known ..." or "the already mentioned..." or even "the one we've already talked about..." etc.

Definite articles are also used to mark the gender of a word and should always be used when learning a new one, not to forget its gender. In fact there are two genders for nouns in Italian and the same two genders for articles: a masculine noun needs a masculine article and a feminine noun needs a feminine article.

Plus, articles also mark the number of a noun, singular or plural: a singular noun needs a singular article, a plural noun needs a plural article.

So, if we could put all this information inside a table it would look like this:

DEFINITE ARTICLES
		NUMBER
		Singular	Plural
GENDER	Masculine	IL, LO	I, GLI
	Feminine	LA	LE

So, masculine singular nouns get two masculine singular articles: "IL" or "LO"; masculine plural nouns get the plural masculine "I" or "GLI". Feminine singular nouns need the feminine article "LA", while feminine plural nouns need the feminine plural "LE".

As you can see, masculine nouns are a bit trickier than the feminine ones: while for the latter we just use one article per number, mascluine nouns can use two of them. What article should be used then?

MASCULINE ARTICLES

First of all it is important to remember that the Italian language does not have a neuter gender and that IL or LO and I or GLI are 100% masculine.

In order to choose the correct masculine article, we should start analyzing the sound the following word begins with. In fact certain sounds cannot stay with article IL and some others cannot stay with article LO.

Plus, notice I wrote "word" and not "noun": in fact, as an article usually stays right before its noun, we could think that a certain noun always requires the same article. However, if I put an adjective between the article and the noun (and in same cases it is correct to do that) I could find myself with a different sound right after the article, which could need to change in order to respect the rule of the sound I mentioned before.

Let us start from LO:

LO must be used before:

• S + Consonant, like before sounds /sk/, /sp/, /st/, /sf/, /zg/, /zb/, /zd/, /sv/, /zm/, /zn/, /zl/, /zr/
• S + C when they create sound /ʃ/
• Z, whether it is pronounced /ts/ or /dz/
• GN /ɲ/
• P + Consonant like in /pt/, /pn/, /ps/: these case are very rare in Italian and come mostly from Greek
• Words beginning with X, pronounced like /ks/ (very rare in Italian)
• Words beginning with J, I or Y pronounced as a half vowel /j/ (like "Yesterday")
• Words beginning with a vowel: in which case LO turns into L' (L + apostrophe)

Let us make a few examples:

• LO SCOIATTOLO --> the squirrel (because we have /sk/)
• LO SQUALO --> the shark (because we have /sk/)
• LO SPORCO --> the dirt (because we have /sp/)
• LO SCIENZIATO --> the scientist (because we have /ʃ/)
• LO ZIO --> the uncle (because we have /ts/)
• LO ZUCCHERO --> the sugar (because we have /ts/)
• LO ZAINO --> the backpack /rucksack (because we have /dz/)
• LO GNOMO --> the gnome (because we have /ɲ/)
• LO PSICOLOGO --> the psychologist (because we have /ps/)
• LO PNEUMATICO --> the tire (because we have /pn/)
• LO IATO --> the hiatus (because we have /j/)
• LO YOGURT --> the yogurt (because we have /j/)
• LO XILOFONO --> the xylophone (because we have /ks/)
• L'ORSO --> the bear (because we have /o/)
• L'ALBERO --> the tree (because we have /a/)
• L'IDOLO --> the idol (because we have /i/)
• L'AIUTO --> the aid / help (because we have /a/)
  

In any other case, the correct article is IL:

• IL CANE --> the dog (because we have (ka/)
• IL GATTO --> the cat (because we have /ga/)
• IL PROBLEMA --> the problem (because we have /pr/)
• IL PORTONE --> the (big) door (because we have /po/)
• IL TUONO --> the thunder (because we have (twɔ/)
• IL BRACCIO --> the arm (because we have /br/)
• IL SUONO --> the sound (because we have /swɔ/)
• IL SILENZIO --> the silence (because we have /si/)

etc.

In order to better explain how the article isn't strictly connected to the noun, let me show you the following example:

IL CASO --> the case:

Since the word doesn't need the LO article, the right one is IL for exclusion. This noun is used inside the title of a famous book by Robert Louis Stevenson "The strange case of doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde". The Italian translation of this title is literal: "LO strano caso del dottor Jekyll e Mister Hyde". Even if saying "IL CASO" is correct since after the article we find the sound /ka/, once we put another word between article and noun we need to riconsider things: STRANO (meaning "strange") begins with /st/ and befor S + consonant we need to use article LO. Thus we say IL CASO (the case), but LO STRANO CASO (the strange case).

So don't make the mistake of thinking that one article is "more masculine" than the other, or even that one article is neuter and the other is masculine, since, as you could see, they are interchangeable in some occasions.

Letter H represents a special case. Since almost no word beginns with an H in Italian (except for some conjugations of the verb "to have" which is pointless to mark with an article), the words that have an H as first letter are usually loan words. Even if in their origin language the H is pronounced, in Italian they are considered as words with a silent H and beginning with the following letter, which usually is a vowel. Let us see these examples:

• HOBBY /'ɔb:i/
• HOTEL /o'tɛl/
• HORROR /'ɔr:or/
• HABITAT /'abitat/
• HABITUÉ /abitu'e/
• HARAKIRI /ara'kiri/
• HOST /'ɔst/
• HOTSPOT /ɔtspɔt/

All these words are now part of the Italian language and gained a masculine gender, but they are all mispronounced according to the Italian phonetics. If we needed to give an article to these words it would be L' (L + apostrophe), as if they all began with a vowel.

L'HOBBY, L'HOTEL, L'HORROR, L'HOST etc.

There is an exception, though, that happened relatively recently: the title of th movie "The Hobbit" by Peter Jackson was traslated with "LO HOBBIT". More and more people are making the effort of pronouncing the H in foreign words and are realising that is quite impossible to pronounce /l/ + an inspired /h/ at the beginning of a word, so they kept the "O" of LO to pronounce /lo'hɔb:it/. This is just an exception for now, though: the rules say you should use L' (apostrophe) before words starting with H + vowel.

For the plural masculine things couldn't be easier: in the place of every IL stands the plural "I", and in the place of any LO or L' (apostrophe) stands the plural "GLI". For example:

IL CANE --> I CANI (dog, dogs)

IL SUONO --> I SUONI (sound, sounds)

IL PROBLEMA --> I PROBLEMI (problem, problems)

LO ZAINO --> GLI ZAINI (backpack, backpacks)

LO SQUALO --> GLI SQUALI (shark, sharks)

L'HOBBY --> GLI HOBBY (hobby, hobbies)

etc.

The article IL always becomes I and the article LO (L') always becomes GLI.

Exceptions to this rule are very few. Some Italian words (called "parole promiscue"), due to their latin origin, change gender in plural form, passing from IL or LO (L') to LE. Remember that in this case the gender of the entire word change, so it could never keep a masculine plural article

L'UOVO --> LE UOVA ("the egg" is masculine in italian, but "the eggs" is feminine, due to its latin origin)

IL BRACCIO --> LE BRACCIA ("the arm" is masculine in italian, while "the arms" when considered as "human arms", and not those of a machine, are feminine, always due to its latin origin)

There is one noun that is highly irregular and behaves in a special way:

IL DIO --> GLI DEI (and not "i dei"; the god, the gods). The story of this word is as follow: DIO (meaning "god" was always preceded by article "IL" which was slowly incorporated by the noun, which became "IDDIO /id'dio/; the plural (irregular) form "DEI" (gods) thus became "IDDEI", which was preceded (following the phonetic rules above) by article "GLI"; GLI IDDEI then changed to GLI DEI due to the apheresis phomenon. Nowadays, due to this, we have this only exception.

FEMININE ARTICLES

Feminine articles are easier.

Once you know a word is feminine you should just use article "LA", which becomes L' (apostrophe) in front of words beginning with a vowel.

LA CASA (the house, home)

LA SPALLA (the shoulder)

LA SCIENZIATA (the female scientist)

LA ZIA (the aunt)

L'ONDA (the wave)

L'IDEA (the idea)

L'ALA (the wing)

L'ELICA (the propeller, rotor, blade of helicopter)

You don't need to consider the sounds that follow, but only to notice if the following word begins with a vowel.

As you may notice, both LO and LA become L' (apostrophe) in front of words beginning with a vowel. When you encounter a new word preceded by L' be sure to check for the gender of that word, because you could not guess it from the article.

For every singular LA we use the plural LE

LE CASE

LE SPALLE

LE SCIENZIATE

LE ZIE

LE ONDE

LE IDEE

LE ALI

LE ELICHE

Notice that LE always stays LE (it never gets the apostrophe) even in front of words beginning with another E): LE ELICHE is pronounced /le'ɛlike/

INDEFINITE ARTICLES

Indefinite articles are the opposite of the definite articles: they mark a noun that is not well known to the reader or the listener and that is not contextualized. The perfect translation of these articles is "a, an, one". Let us use the same example used for the definite articles:

MELA (apple) can be preceded by the definite article LA (since "mela" is feminine in italian); saying LA MELA gives us the idea of a specific apple that we can picture in our head, or a contextualized apple that we can describe in some way; as I said we could replace "LA" with a sentence like "the well known", "the already mentioned", etc.

Let us use the indefinite article though; LA changes to UNA: UNA MELA (where "UNA" means "an").

If I say UNA MELA I mean "one of the many", "one at random", "it doesn matter which". The indefinite articles tell us not to focus on a specific sample of the concept we are talking about; the listener cannot describe the concept properly and cannot contextualize it, as he or she needs to recive more information from the speaker.

In Italian indefinite articles can be only singular and refer only to one generic and random sample of the concept we are talking about: so while we can turn a definite IL, LO or LA into an indefinite article, we cannot turn I, GLI, LE into one of them; for doing this we need the partitive articles which we'll see later.

For now let's learn the indefinite ones:

INDEFINITE ARTICLES
GENDER	Masculine	UN, UNO
	Feminine	UNA

Once again we can see how the masculine gender is a bit more problematic than the feminine one. Masculine nouns can be preceded by two articles, while feminine nouns only by one. But don't worry: the rule you have to follow is always the same as before! UN is the indefinite "brother" of IL, while UNO is the indefinite "brother" of LO

UNA is the indefinite "sister" of LA. So:

IL --> UN

IL CANE, UN CANE (the dog, a dog; the following nouns behave in the same way)

IL PORTONE, UN PORTONE

IL PROBLEMA, UN PROBLEMA

LO --> UNO

LO SCOIATTOLO, UNO SCOIATTOLO

LO ZIO, UNO ZIO

LO GNOMO, UNO GNOMO

LA --> UNA

LA CASA, UNA CASA

LA ZIA, UNA ZIA

LA SPALLA, UNA SPALLA

ATTENTION: remember how both LO and LA become L' (apostrophe) in front of words beginning with a vowel? As for the indefinite articles, only UNA becomes UN' (apostrophe) in front of words beginning with a vowel, while UNO becomes UN (without the apostrophe, since UN and UN' would be pronounced in the exact same way). So:

L'ALBERO, UN ALBERO (no apostrophe)

L'ORSO, UN ORSO (no apostrophe)

L'IDOLO, UN IDOLO (no apostrophe)

L'IDEA, UN'IDEA (with apostrophe)

L'ALA, UN'ALA (with apostrophe)

L'ELICA, UN'ELICA (with apostrophe)

NOTE: Italians usually forget to write the apostrophe for the feminine UN', but it is quite useful for guessing the gender of a word.

PARTITIVE ARTICLES

Partitive articles are used to show a general and not well specified quantity of a concept, that cannot be contextualised properly by the listener or the reader. These articles are formed with the help of the preposition DI + a definite article, which will be chosen always according to the sound rules I explained before. However the combination of DI + a definite article gives birth to a new word.

We have:

DI + IL --> DEL

DI + LO --> DELLO (DELL' in front of words beginning with a vowel)

D + LA --> DELLA (DELL' in front of words beginning with a vowel)

DI + I --> DEI

DI + GLI --> DEGLI

DI + LE --> DELLE

Partitive articles are used for both countable and uncountable nouns. For uncountable nouns we use the singular versions DEL, DELLO, DELLA, while for countable nouns we use the plural forms DEI, DEGLI , DELLE. In both cases the best translation for a partitive article is "some":

DEL TEMPO (since we say "IL TEMPO", we use DI + IL = DEL): some time

DELL'ACQUA: some water

DELLO SPORCO: some dirt

DELLE MELE: some apples

DELLE COSE: some things

DEGLI ORSI: some bears

DEI CANI: some dogs

From a certain point of view, plural partitive articles can be considered as the plural form of an indefinite article: in fact the English "a, an" could be replaced with "one" and UN, UNO, UNA, actually mean "one" too! While "some" usually stands in place of "more than one", like the plural form of "a, an".

I ate an apple / I ate some apples --> Ho mangiato una mela / ho mangiato delle mele

HOW TO USE ARTICLES - A FEW RULES AND EXAMPLES

Even learning the theory sometimes is not enough and even if your mother language has articles, they are used differently in each language.

Using articles correctly in Italian is one of the most difficult thing to do. Just look at these few "rules":

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES

Italian uses definite articles in front of possessive adjectives unlike English, Spanish or French, but like Portuguese:

IL MIO CANE --> my dog

LE MIE AMICHE --> my female friends

However we don't use them when we talk about relatives:

MIO ZIO --> my uncle

MIA SORELLA --> my sister

but only when singular, because when they are plural we need to use the article:

MIO ZIO / I MIEI ZII --> my uncle / my uncles

MIA SORELLA / LE MIE SORELLE --> my sister /my sisters

However, using the article even with singular relatives is possibile, but it gives a deep feeling of attachment, almost childish love

MIA MAMMA / LA MIA MAMMA --> my mum / my dear mum, my mummy

It maybe strange to hear for some of you, but we can also replace the definite articles with an indefinite or partitive articles meaning "a/some [s.t, or s.o.] of mine":

UN MIO COLLEGA --> a collegue of mine

UNA MIA PAURA --> a fear of mine

DELLE MIE SCARPE --> some shoes of mine

NATIONS AND CITIES

We use definite articles before every Nation with just a few exceptions

L'ITALIA --> Italy

LA FRANCIA --> France

LA TURCHIA --> Turky (Turkey)

However this is true when the Nation is subject or complement not introduced by preposition IN: in this case articles must not be used:

VIVO IN ITALIA --> I live in Italy (complement introduced by IN)

MI TRASFERISCO IN FRANCIA --> I'm moving to France (complement introduced by IN)

AMO L'ITALIA --> I love Italy (complement not introduced by IN)

However, some Nations are considered as plural nouns (like "the United States" or "the Philipines"): in these cases the article must always be used:

GLI STATI UNITI --> the United States

NEGLI STATI UNITI --> in the United States (NEGLI = IN + GLI)

LE FILIPPINE --> the Philipines

NELE FILIPPINE --> in the Philipines

Some Nations, as I said before, have no article at all and always appear without it:

ISRAELE --> Israel

IN ISRAELE --> in Israel

SAN MARINO --> San Marino

A SAN MARINO --> in San Marino

MALTA --> Malta

A MALTA --> in Malta

With cities we never use articles

PARIGI --> Paris

VIVO A PARIGI --> I live in Paris

Unless the city has an article inside the name like:

IL CAIRO --> Cairo

VIVO AL CAIRO --> I live in Cairo city ( AL = A + IL)

LA VELLA --> La Vella

VIVO ALLA VELLA --I live in La Vella

and unless you want to add information on the city with an adjunct:

LA PARIGI DEGLI ANNI VENTI --> Paris in the '20s

LA ROMA CHE NON HAI MAI VISTO --> The Rome you've never seen

TIME

The days of the week are preceded by the article only when we mean "every day"

ODIO IL LUNEDÌ --> i hate mondays

IL MARTEDÌ VADO IN PALESTRA --> I go to the gym every tuesday

But we don't use the article when the thing we are talking about is going to happen (or happened) only once on that precise day

CI VEDIAMO GIOVEDI' --> see you on thursday

SABATO SONO ANDATA AD UN CONCERTO --> I went to a concert on saturday

VENERDI' ABBIAMO UNA RIUNIONE --> we have a meeting planned for this friday

Months are never used with articles

ODIO OTTOBRE PERCHE' PIOVE SEMPRE --> I hate october because it's too rainy

A GENNAIO PARTO PER IL CANADA --> In January I'm going to Canada

Years, on the contrary, are always preceded by the article, unlike English

SIAMO NEL 2024 --> it's 2024 (NEL = IN + IL)

FORSE L'AMERICA FU SCOPERTA PRIMA DEL 1492 --> maybe America (notice the article L' !!) was discovered before 1492 (DEL = DI + IL)

IL 2001 E' STATO L'ANNO IN CUI E' NATO MIO FIGLIO --> 2001 was the year my son was born

We also use the article to tell the hour

SONO LE DUE --> it's two o'clock

CI VEDIAMO ALLE QUATTRO --> see you at 4 p.m (ALLE = A + LE)

To tell the day of the month we always use the article:

OGGI E' IL DUE (DI) APRILE --> today it's April the 2nd

L'HO VISTO IL 30 DI GIUGNO --> I saw it on June the 30th

GEOGRAPHY

Rivers, mountains, lakes, flat lands, archipelagos, sees are always preceded by an article

IL PO --> the Po river

SUL TAMIGI --> on the Thames

IL KILIMANGIARO --> Kilimanjaro

L'OUTBACK AUSTRALIANO --> the Australian Outback

NELL'OCEANO INDIANO --> in the Indian Ocean

AL LAGO MICHIGAN --> to Lake MIchigan (AL = A + IL)

ALLE CANARIE --> in the Canaries

However Islands tend to behave like Nations

LA SARDEGNA / IN SARDEGNA

LA SICILIA / IN SICILIA

LA TASMANIA / IN TASMANIA

But there are many exceptions

CAPRI / A CAPRI --> Capri /in Capri

ISCHIA / A ISCHIA --> Ischia /in Ischia

IL BORNEO / NEL BORNEO (or IN BORNEO) --> Borneo, in Borneo

WORDS AS SUBJECTS

Words used as subject can never appear without an article at the beginning of a sentence:

GLI UOMINI NON POTRANNO MAI CAPIRE --> Men will never understand

GLI ANIMALI SEGUONO L'ISTINTO --> Animals follow the instinct

LE COSE NON SI METTONO BENE --> things aren't looking good

L'AMORE E' COMPLICATO --> Love is complicated

Every language is full of situations and exceptions. Learning how to use articles in the correct way is all a matter of practice. I suggest you to read and to listen to a mother language as much as you can.

COMPARISON BETWEEN DEFINITE, INDEFINITE AND PARTITIVE ARTICLES

Let us compare similar sentences using the three different kinds of articles:

HO MANGIATO UNA MELA --> I hate an apple

using UNA will inform the listener that we ate one apple at random, maybe to inform him or her that we ate something healthy or that our stomach is not empty.

HO MANGIATO LA MELA, HO MANGIATO LE MELE

using LA will inform the listener that we ate a precise apple known to him or her: imagine someone gave you an apple in the morning and then you ate it. If that person asks you "what have you eaten today?" you will probably answer like this. LA stands for "the one you know about, the one you gave me". If in this case we used UNA, the listener would probably get confused and ask us "did you eat the apple a gave you or another one?". Using LE delivers the same information but about more the one specific apple

HO MANGIATO DELLE MELE

using DELLE will inform the listener that we ate more than one apple at random. The listener doesn't know anything about these apples. It's up to us to let him or her know if we meant just to inform that we are not hungry anymore or if somthing else happended about these apples.

HO COMPRATO UNA MACCHINA USATA --> I bought a second-hand car

with this sentence I mean that I bought a car among many others I could buy: it's not important to focus on what car I bought, but that I can finally drive wherever I want on my own. The listener doesn't have a clue of what car it could be, or that I wanted to buy a used one.

HO COMPRATO LA MACCHINA USATA

with this sentence it is clear to the listener that I'm talking about "that car we've already talked about"; so the listener probably knows the brand, the colour, the engine type (diesel or gasoline) etc.

HO COMPRATO DELLE MACCHINE USATE

If I were a car re-seller, my job would would be to go searching for used cars around the Country or even abroad. If I had a collegue I could need to explain to him or her that I mangaged to "buy some used cars". The listener doesn't have a clue about what cars they are.

CONCLUSIONI

In Italian articles are overused compared to the English language. Many times --work in progress--