Italy Grammar

Italian nouns fall into two genders, masculine and feminine. The singular masculine ending is usually o, as in duomo, and the feminine is usually a, as in donna. Words ending in an o in the singular usually end with an i in the plural; conto (KOHN-toh; bill) becomes conti (KOHN-tee). Words ending in an a in the singular end with an e in the plural; mela (MEH-lah; apple) becomes mele (MEH-leh). All words ending with e take an i in the plural; cane (KAH-neh; dog) becomes cani (KAH-nee). Words with a final accent, like cittá, and words that end in consonants, like bar, do not change in the plural. Adjectives, which come after the word they modify, agree with their noun in gender and number.

Articles

In Italian, the gender and number of a noun determine the article that precedes it. Definite articles are il, lo, l’, la, i, gli, and le. Il is used for most masculine singular nouns ( il gatto; the cat), while those beginning with a vowel, z, or s impura (s plus any consonant) are preceded by the article lo ( lo zio; the uncle; lo stivale; the boot). The article la is used with feminine singular nouns beginning with a consonant: la capra (the goat). For all singular nouns beginning with a vowel, l’ is the appropriate article: l’arte (the art).

In the plural, the article i is used for most masculine plural nouns ( i libri; the books), while gli is used with masculine nouns beginning with a vowel, z, or s impura ( gli stivali, the boots; gli aerei, the airplanes). Le precedes all feminine nouns ( le scarpe; the shoes).

Indefinite articles are un, uno, una, and un’. Un and uno behave like il and lo, respectively, except that un can precede a masculine noun beginning with a vowel: un gatto (a cat), un uomo (a man), uno stivale (a boot). For feminine nouns, un’ is used before vowels and una is used everywhere else: un’edicola (a newsstand), una ragazza (a girl).