The rules for definite articles
One of the things I really love about the Italian language is how lyrical it is. Everything sounds beautiful, even when you're describing a brown pair of pants (pantaloni marroni).
One of the ways that Italian does this is through its rules for definite articles.
Definite articles are are words used to specify a particular noun that is already known to the speaker and the listener. In other words: "the."
In Italian, the definite article changes based on the gender of the noun and the letter that the noun starts with. This helps give Italian its flowing, sing-songy cadence.
Let's review the rules.
For masculine nouns
- Il - Singular nouns that start with a consonant
- Il cane - The dog
- Il figlio - The son
- Il vino - The wine
- L' - Singular nouns that start with a vowel
- L'olio - The oil
- L'amico - The friend
- L'ombrello - The umbrella
- Lo - Singular nouns that start with a s+consonant, z, y, ps, pn, gn, x
- Lo zaino - The backpack
- Lo spagnolo - The Spanish guy
- Lo psicologo - The psychologist
- I - Plural nouns that start with a consonant (e.g., the plural of "Il")
- I libri - The books
- I ragazzi - The boys
- I giorni - The days
- Gli - Plural nouns that start with a vowel, s+consonant, z, y, ps, pn, gn, x (the plural of "L'" or "Lo")
- Gli spiedini - The shish kabobs
- Gli yogurt - The yogurts
- Gli orologi - The watches
For feminine nouns
These are a lot easier!
- La - Singular nouns that start with a consonant
- La sorella - The sister
- La penna - The pen
- La casa - The house
- L' - Singular nouns that start with a vowel (same as masculine!)
- L'insalata - The salad
- L'amica - The friend
- L'acqua - The water
- Le - All plurals
- Le sorelle - The sisters
- Le insalate - The salade
- Le amiche - The friends (we'll cover making plurals later)
Idiom of the day
Avere le mani in pasta.
Literally, "to have your hands in the dough." You've got a lot of projects and a lot of things going on!