Italian Nouns, Gender and Articles

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Two genders, seven definite articles, and the -o/-a/-e patterns that make gender the easiest part of Italian.

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Two genders, visible endings

Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and the ending almost always shows it: -o is masculine (il libro, the book), -a is feminine (la casa, the house). Words ending in -e can be either — il sole (the sun, masculine) but la notte (the night, feminine) — so learn those with their article. Adjectives agree with the noun: un libro rosso (a red book) but una casa rossa (a red house).

The seven definite articles

Italian has more forms of "the" than any language you have met: masculine singular il, lo, l'; feminine singular la, l'; masculine plural i, gli; feminine plural le. The choice depends on the next sound: lo/gli/uno before s+consonant, z, ps, gn and y (lo studente, gli zii); l' before any vowel (l'amico, l'amica); il/i and la/le everywhere else. It looks heavy but becomes automatic within weeks.

Indefinite articles and plurals

The indefinite articles (a, an) are un (masculine), uno (masculine before s+consonant, z, etc.: uno studente), una (feminine) and un' (feminine before a vowel: un'amica). Plurals change the ending, not just the article: -o → -i (libro → libri), -a → -e (casa → case), -e → -i (notte → notti).

Articles that melt together

The prepositions di, a, da, in, con, su fuse with definite articles into single words: di + il = del (of the), a + la = alla (to the), in + i = nei (in the), da + gli = dagli (from the). These preposizioni articolate are mandatory — di il written separately is simply wrong. Learn them as a table once and they will never trouble you again.

Article	Use
il / i	the — masculine (il libro / i libri)
lo / gli	the — masculine before s+consonant, z…
la / le	the — feminine (la casa / le case)
l'	the — before any vowel (l'amico)
un / uno	a — masculine (uno studente)
una / un'	a — feminine (un'amica)

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