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Definite Article
Gender |
Number |
Article |
Usage |
| Masculine |
Singular |
il/lo |
Lo before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, pn, x, y and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants), l' before a vowel, otherwise il. Note lo iodio ("the iodine"), lo Ionio (the Ionian Sea) where the initial i represents a semiconsonant; on the other hand, it is usual to employ l' before semiconsonantic u (pronounced /w/) in mobile diphthongs: l'uomo "the man", l'uovo "the egg" . However, foreign words beginning with w and used in Italian, like West (referring to the American Old West) and whisky, are usually perceived as beginning with a v sound, and the il article is used: il West, il whisky, and Giacomo Puccini's opera is La fanciulla del West. |
| Plural |
i/gli |
gli (pronounced /ʎi/) before a vowel or z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants) |
| Feminine |
Singular |
la |
l' before a vowel: but la iarda ("the yard") for the same reason as before |
| Plural |
le |
l' is used rarely before a vowel |
Indefinite article
Gender |
Morpheme |
Usage |
| Masculine |
un |
uno before z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants) |
| gli (pronounced /ʎi/) before a vowel or z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants) |
| Feminine |
una |
un' before a vowel |
The forms l' and un' arise from mandatory elision of lo, la and una before vowels.
The plural of il dio ("the god") features an irregular definite article, being gli dei instead of i dei.
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