Definite Articles (plural)

(how to say "THE" for plural nouns)

Previously in this series, we covered singular definite articles (how to say "THE" for singular nouns), so "the dog" is:

il cane

Then, we talked about regular noun endings, and how those change to form the plural, so "dogs" is:

e->i

cani

Now suppose we want to combine the two and say "the dogs."  

 ?  cani

For that, we need to learn the three plural definite articles and when to use them (hint: it's easy!) so go to page 11 of the BASICS Digital Workbook (link below) and let's get started!

(New to this series?… You may want to start with…)

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 ITALIAN BASICS:  
   (1) Indefinite Articles, (How to say "A/AN")
   (2) Definite Articles (singular), (How to say "THE")
   (3) Pluralization, (How to make singular nouns plural)

Recapping on Masculine Articles/Plurals:

There are three singular, masculine, definite articles:

IL for most masculine nouns

L' for masculine nouns that begin with a vowel.

LO for masculine nouns that begin with z, s+consonant, ps, and gn.

Most masculine nouns end in o, which becomes i in the plural.

Some masculine nouns end in e, which becomes i in the plural.

il -> i 

If the noun takes IL in the singular, it takes I in the plural:

il libro  ->   i libri

the book         the books    

il ragazzo  -> i ragazzi

the boy            the boys   

il giorno  ->  i giorni

the day              the days   

---

l' / lo ->  gli 

Any masculine noun that takes L' or LO in the singular takes GLI in the plural:  

l'occhio  -> gli occhi

the eye                   the eyes   

l'albero  ->  gli alberi

the tree               the trees  

lo zaino  ->  gli zaini

the backpack              the backpacks  

lo sport  ->  gli sport

the sport                    the sports   

lo psicologo  ->  gli psicologi

the psychiatrist                  the psychiatrists    

lo gnocco  ->  gli gnocchi

the dumpling                   the dumplings   

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Recapping on Feminine Articles/Plurals:

There are two singular, feminine, definite articles:

LA for most feminine nouns

L' for feminine nouns that begin with a vowel.

Most feminine nouns end in a, which becomes e in the plural.

Some feminine nouns end in e, which becomes i in the plural.

la / l' ->  le

All feminine nouns take LE in the plural:

la cosa  ->   le cose

the thing               the things    

la ragazza  -> le ragazze

the girl                    the girls   

la casa  ->  le case

the house               the houses  

la birra  ->  le birre

the beer                the beers  

l'occasione  -> le occasioni

the occasion                  the occasions  

l'aranciata  ->  le aranciate

the orange sodas               the orange sodas

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All of the definite articles, as well as when to use each can be summed up in the following chart:

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If you haven't done so already, fill-in the "Notes" section of the Definite Articles (Plural) worksheet on page 11 of  the Italian Basics digital workbook and then complete the quick exercises! (Submit your answers by email for free corrections!)

  —be the first to know about new lessons & worksheets! {Subscribe here!} 

Ready for the next lesson in this series?

(05) The Partitive Article (How to say "SOME" in Italian)

Previous lessons in this series…
(01) Indefinite Articles (How to say "A/AN" in Italian
(02) Definite Articles (How to say "THE" in Italian)
(03) Pluralization, (How to make singular nouns plural)

 Potrebbe pure interessarti….

  The Beginner's Italian Grammar Series, starting with:

     

How Italian Verbs Work

Pluralization

(talking about more than one thing)

So far in this series, we've talked about indefinite and definite articles and how they change depending on the noun they are modifying.

We've only been using singular nouns so far but what if we want to talk about more than one thing?  For that, we need to learn the plural forms of nouns.  

Don't worry, it's easy! Just print out the worksheet on page 9 of the BASICS Digital Workbook (link below) and let's get pluralizing!

(New to this series?… You may want to start with…)

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 ITALIAN BASICS:  
   (1) Indefinite Articles, (How to say "A/AN")
   (2) Definite Articles (singular), (How to say "THE")

Compare to English:


In English, the general rule of pluralization is to add "s" to the end of the noun.

the dog -> the dogs

the cat -> the cats

the boy -> the boys

the girl -> the girls

There are some spelling changes and exceptions to this rule, but more often than not, it works.


Pluralization Patterns: 


Similarly, Italian also follows rules that work most of the time, but instead of adding a letter, the final vowel of the word changes:

Exceptions to the rule:

As I said before, the above works most of the time, but there are exceptions.  [More on this later!]

If you haven't done so already, fill-in the "Notes" section of the Pluralization worksheet on page 9 of  the Italian Basics digital workbook and then complete the short exercises at the bottom of the page! (Submit your answers by email for free corrections!)

 —be the first to know about new lessons & worksheets! {Subscribe here!} 

 Previous lessons in this series...
  (01) Indefinite Articles (How to say "A/AN" in Italian
  (02) Definite Articles (How to say "THE" in Italian)

 Potrebbe pure interessarti….

  The Beginner's Italian Grammar Series, starting with:

     

How Italian Verbs Work

Italian basics: Definite Articles (singular)

(how to say THE in Italian)

Il fruttivendolo, excerpt from Food Picture Dictionary Vol. 01 

Last time, we talked about indefinite articles, which in English are: a/an, but what if we want to say "THE"?

"The" is a definite article.  In English, it remains the same no matter the gender or number of the noun we are referring to:

the dog
the cats
the boy
the girls

Italian nouns have a gender (either masculine or feminine) and a number (singular or plural)

and Italian articles do too…

(Today, however, we'll focus just on the singular!)

The masculine, singular definite article is IL:

il libro

the book

il ragazzo

the boy

il giorno

the day

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The feminine, singular definite article is LA:

la cosa

the thing

la ragazza

the girl

la casa

the house

la birra

the beer

MASCULINE or FEMININE?

In general, nouns that end in "o" are masculine, and nouns that end in "a" are feminine, but there are some exceptions that must be memorized as well as nouns that end in -e, -à and others.  When learning a new noun, I recommend learning it with the article, so that the association of the noun with its gender becomes automatic.

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Just like Italian indefinite articles, definite articles have different forms depending on the starting sound of the word that follows them.

If the word starts with a VOWEL, the article is L' and 
(for both masculine & feminine!)

l'occhio (m.)

the eye

l'albero (m.) 

the tree

l'occasione (f.) 

the occasion

l'aria (f.) 

the air

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If the word is masculine and starts with Z, S+consonant, PS or GN, the article is LO

lo zaino

the backpack

lo sport

the sport

lo psicologo

the psychiatrist

lo gnocco

the dumpling

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This means that there are 4 different versions of the singular definite article, which can be summed up in the following chart:

It may seem like a lot, but really the main articles are IL and LA, and the others are variations based on pronunciation.  

When you learn a new word, LEARN IT WITH THE ARTICLE and say it out loud several times so that it begins to sound natural to you!

When I make vocab lists, I always include the proper article in parentheses and the gender if it isn't obvious from the article/ending:

cosa (la) — thing

sport (lo) - sport

anno (l') — year

occasione (l') (f.) - occasion

città (la) - city

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Tutto chiaro? 
                  (Is it all clear?)

Reinforce what you've learned with the Italian Basics digital workbook: (with easily printable pages!)

(New worksheet that corresponds to this lesson added!)

 —be the first to know about new lessons & worksheets! {Subscribe here!}

Ready for the next lesson in this series?

(03) Pluralization

Potrebbe pure interessarti...

The Beginner's Italian Grammar Series, starting with:

How Italian Verbs Work

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Basic Italian: Indefinite articles

(how to say A/AN in Italian)

"a" is the indefinite article in English and it is used with nouns to specify that we are talking about a non-specific or general noun:

a dog
a cat
a boy
a girl

Italian nouns have a gender (either masculine or feminine) 

and Italian articles do too…

The masculine indefinite article in Italian is UN:

un libro

a book

un ragazzo

a boy

un giorno

a day

un occhio

an eye

~

The feminine indefinite article in Italian is UNA:

una cosa

a thing

una ragazza

a girl

una casa

a house

una birra

a beer

MASCULINE or FEMININE?

In general, nouns that end in "o" are masculine, and nouns that end in "a" are feminine, but there are some exceptions that must be memorized as well as nouns that end in -e, -à and others.  When learning a new noun, I recommend learning it with the article, so that the association of the noun with its gender becomes automatic.

~

In English, if the word following the article starts with a vowel sound the article becomes "an":

an apple

an orange

an ear

an eye

This "n" has a function— it makes pronunciation easier.

Similary, in Italian, the masculine and feminine articles vary a bit based on the starting sound of the following word:


Masculine nouns that start with Z, S+consonant, PS and GN take UNO:

uno zaino

a backpack

uno sport

a sport

uno psicologo

a psychiatrist

uno gnocco

a dumpling

UN-> UNO

Italian adds the vowel "o" to break up these difficult consonant clusters that would be hard to pronounce together. 

With feminine nouns that begin with these consonants, you don't have to do anything special because UNA already has a vowel:

una zia

an aunt

una sposa

a bride

~

For feminine nouns, UNA becomes shortened to UN' (with an apostrophe) and attached if the following word starts with a vowel: 

un'amica

a friend (that's a girl)

un'aranciata

an orange soda

UNA-> UN'
This rule can be easily remembered if you practice saying the words aloud.  If you say: una amica✗ you have to say the "a" sound twice— it glides along much better to just have one "a" sound: un'amica✓ so that's how you pronounce it and write it.

The masculine form UN doesn't have an extra vowel sound at the end, so you don't need to do anything special with words that begin with vowels:

un amico

a friend (that's a boy)

un anniversario

an anniversary

That's it!  Capito? (got it?)

Reinforce what you've learned with the Italian Basics digital workbook: (with easily printable pages!)

 —be the first to know about new lessons & worksheets! {Subscribe here!} 

Ready for the next lesson in this series?

(02) Definite Articles (How to say "THE" in Italian)

Potrebbe pure interessarti….

The Beginner's Italian Grammar Series, starting with:

How Italian Verbs Work

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