The Italian indefinite article (l'articolo indeterminativo) corresponds to English a/an and is used with singular nouns. It also corresponds to the number one.
When the noun to which the article applies is a masculine noun then "a/an" can be translated as "un", or "uno", if the article applies to a feminine noun then the article that has to be used is "una". As the definite articles, there are some rules to understand the use of these articles:
- uno-UNO: It is used for masculine words beginning with z or s + consonant.
- un-UN: It is used for all other masculine words, except the cases where you have to use "UNO"
- una-UNA: it is used with feminine nouns starting with any consonant.
- un'-UN': It is the elision of una, used when feminine nouns start with any vowel.
Examples:
º un treno e una bicicletta |
A train and a bicycle |
º
un aeroplano e un’automobile |
An airplane and a car |
º uno stadio e una stazione |
One(an) stage and one(a) station |
When plural nouns are indefinite, they simply do not use an article, or they use the partitive form: i.e. cats (no article) or some cats (partitive), coins or some coins (partitive), etc. Partitive will be dealt with further on, so for the time being simply disregard its use.
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