Italian Articles

In Italian, as well as all the other Romance languages (French, Spanish, etc), all nouns have a gender and a number associated with them. The article indicates gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the noun.

"il"-"lo" are the definite article that corresponds to masculine nouns. Examples:

il professore » the teacher.
il telefono » the phone.
il vecchio zio » the old uncle.

“la” is the definite article that corresponds to feminine nouns. Examples:

la casa » the house.
la tavola » the table.
la finestra » the window.

When using nouns, you must make sure that you use the correct gender and number when using an identifier. The identifiers are il, lo, la, i, gli, le, un, uno and una. Il, lo and la are singular definite articles, which means you are talking about a specific thing. Examples:

La sedia » the chair (you are talking about a specific chair)
Il telefono è verde » The telephone is green.
La parete è brutta » The wall is ugly.

The use of these identifiers is identical to the way you would say it in English - if you want to say "a table", use una, and if you want to say "the table", use la.

"i" and "gli" are the plural of "il" and "lo", and "le" is the plural of "la". You use these plural definite articles when you are talking about several specific members of a group. There are no plural forms of uno and una, and to translate "some" when used in sentences, one must use indeterminate pronouns. Examples

Le stanze sono grandi » The rooms are big.
Delle sedie sono in cucina » Some chairs are in the kitchen.
Gli stessi ragazzi » the same boys
Dei tavoli » some tables.

To learn more about articles, click the following sections:

» Italian Definite Article: la - lo - il
» Italian Indefinite Article: una - uno - un