Italian definite articles

What are the Italian definite articles? English only has one: the. Italian has… well, a few.

How many definite articles are there in Italian? How and when do you use them? In this lesson, you will find an answer to all these questions.

Il cane
The dog

La donna
The woman

I tavoli
The tables

Le sedie
The chairs

Let’s start with the explanation right away!

---

Definite articles in Italian

Italian definite articles are used to talk about a specific person or thing or groups of people/things, be it singular or plural.

All definite articles in Italian go before the noun. If there’s already an adjective before the noun, they are placed before that.

Italian definite articles can be either masculine or feminine depending on the gender of the noun they precede. Definite articles in Italian can also be either singular or plural.

Remember: all Italian articles agree with the gender and number of the noun.

This means that there are four possible groups of articles in total:

• masculine singular articles
• masculine plural articles
• feminine singular articles
• feminine plural articles

Before diving into each group, let’s write down all possible Italian definite articles in a table.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	il, lo, l’	i, gli
Feminine	la, l’	le

This is why we say il gatto and la bambina, because gatto is a singular noun of masculine gender while bambina is a feminine singular noun. Gatto then needs a masculine singular article (il), and bambina needs a feminine singular article (la).

There are rules that dictate why gatto needs specifically the il article and not lo, for example, and we will see why in a moment.

All clear? Tutto chiaro? Perfetto! Now let’s take a closer look at these groups of articles one by one.

---

Masculine singular articles

As you can see in the table above, Italian has 3 masculine singular definite articles: IL, LO and L’.

When to use “il”

IL is used before any masculine nouns or adjectives beginning with a consonant. There are few exceptions to this rule:

• s+consonant (st-, sp-, sb-, sv-, sc- etc.)
• “sh” sound (sci-, scia-, scio- etc.)
• z-, gn-, ps-, pn-, semivowel i and x–
• h–

For example, a masculine noun such as serpente, snake, will become il serpente, the snake.

The same thing applies to many other nouns beginning with a consonant, such as topo, libro or divano.

Article	Noun
IL	serpente
IL	topo
IL	libro
IL	divano
IL	weekend
IL	grande giorno

A noun like studio, however, will not become il studio as it begins with s+consonant (st-), which is one of the exceptions to our rule. The same goes for sciroppo (sh- sound), zoo (z) and psicologo.

What’s up with these nouns? What article do we have to use? This is where “lo” comes into the picture.

---

When to use “lo”

LO is used in front of any masculine nouns or adjectives beginning with:

• s+consonant (st-, sp-, sb-, sv-, sc- etc.)
• “sh” sound (sci-, scia-, scio- etc.)
• z-, gn-, ps-, pn-, semivowel i and x–

You got that right: these are the same exceptions to the “il” article rule minus nouns beginning with h-! (We still have to cover all vowel sounds, I’ll get to those in a minute.)

That means studio will become lo studio. And iodio, which is a word that begins with a semivowel (i/y/j+vowel), will become lo iodio and so on.

You would normally say il passaggio because passaggio begins with a p-, but we’ve seen that for any of the four groups of Italian definite articles you have to take into account the beginning letters of any word following the article.

Stretto, narrow, begins with s+consonant.

If there’s an adjective before a noun, you’ll have to consider the beginning letter of the adjective itself, not the beginning letter of the noun.

Article	Noun
LO	studio
LO	sciroppo
LO	zoo
LO	psicologo
LO	xilofono
LO	yogurt
LO	stretto passaggio

Now how do masculine Italian definite articles work with vowels?

---

When to use “l’ “

L’ is used in front of any masculine nouns or adjectives beginning with… you guessed it, a vowel. It’s also used for nouns beginning with h-.

With one caveat:

• nouns that begin with a semivowel (i+vowel, j+vowel or y+vowel) take on lo instead

What does the apostrophe ‘ stand for in l’?
It’s the contracted form of lo. But it’s really awkward to say lo albero or lo elefante, so l’ is used instead.

Now, what are some masculine nouns that begin with a vowel? Albero, tree. Which becomes l’albero, the tree! Or orso, bear, which becomes l’orso, the bear.

You don’t say: lo albero, lo orso.

There are 5 vowels in Italian: A, E, I, O, U. Let’s see an example for all of them.

Article	Noun
L’	albero
L’	elefante
L’	indirizzo
L’	orso
L’	uomo
L’	hotel
IL	giovane albero

Now that we’ve seen how the Italian definite articles behave in the singular, let’s see how they work in the plural.

---

Masculine plural articles

There are only two definite articles in Italian for masculine plural nouns: I and GLI.

Once you get accustomed to how the singular articles work you will have no problems deciding when to use i or gli for plural nouns, because…

• nouns or adjectives that use il in the singular use i in the plural
• nouns or adjectives that use either lo or l’ in the singular use gli in the plural

Remember!
IL > I
LO/L’ > GLI

Now let’s make some examples. The singular noun is provided in brackets.

Article	Noun
I	serpenti
I	topi
GLI	zoo
GLI	psicologi
GLI	elefanti
GLI	alberi
I	giovani alberi

Il dio, which means the god, is irregular in the plural: gli dèi, the gods, instead of i dèi.

It’s now time to look at the Italian definite articles for feminine nouns. Let’s see them right away!

---

Feminine singular articles

The definite articles in Italian for feminine nouns are easy to learn. In the singular, there are only two of them: LA and L’.

When to use “la”

LA is used for any feminine nouns or adjectives beginning with:

• a consonant
• semivowel i/y/j
• h
• w

For example, a feminine noun such as lampada, lamp, will become la lampada, the lamp.

The noun iena translates to hyena and it begins with a semivowel i+vowel. So we’ll say la iena instead.

You don’t say: l’iena. It sounds hideous!

Hall is feminine, so we’ll say la hall.

And so forth for all other consonants: sedia, coperta, porta.

Article	Noun
LA	lampada
LA	iena
LA	hall
LA	sedia
LA	coperta
LA	porta

Now let’s see when you use l’, which is the contracted form of la.

---

When to use “l’ “

L’ is used in front of any feminine nouns or adjectives beginning with… you guessed it again, a vowel.

Always remember that the semivowel i/y/j behaves like a consonant!

Let’s see a few examples with A, E, I, O and U.

As always, remember that any Italian article needs to agree with the letter of the following word, be it a noun or an adjective.

Article	Noun
L’	arancia
L’	erba
L’	isola
L’	orma
L’	unghia
LA	migliore amica

Now for the easiest Italian definite article of all, le.

---

Feminine plural articles

You can’t really go wrong with these, as there’s only one article to choose from: LE.

When to use “le”

LE is used in combination with all plural feminine nouns and adjectives, no matter what letter they begin with.

Yes, it’s that simple.

So you have la lampada which becomes le lampade, la iena that turns into le iene. Or l’orma, the footprint, that becomes le orme, the footprints.

Article	Noun
LE	lampade
LE	coperte
LE	hall
LE	orme
LE	unghie
LE	migliori amiche

Phew! We saw all four types of Italian definite articles!

But knowing what articles are there is not that useful if you don’t know when to use them in a sentence. Do all nouns that are addressing a specific person or thing need a definite article, or can they do without it?

Keep reading and you’ll find out!

---

When to use the Italian definite articles

We already said that definite articles in Italian are used with a specific person or thing and groups of people/things. Let me elaborate a bit more on this. Consider the example:

Dogs are cute.

If you don’t already know, the Italian translation for dogs is cani.

Now, how would you translate dogs in this sentence? With or without a definite article?

Remember what you learned: Italian definite articles are also used for groups of things. Generic classes of people and things.

English nouns don’t need an article in this case. Italian nouns do.

I cani sono carini.
Dogs are cute.

You can’t say: cani sono carini.

Other examples are:

These sentences don’t address a specific group of cats or hippos or Italian people, but all cats and hippos and Italian people as a general class.

---

Italian definite articles and possessives

Another BIG difference between the two languages is that Italian possessive adjectives and pronouns need to be preceded by an article. This is unheard of in English.

Il mio cane è carino.
My dog is cute.

That literally says The my dog is cute.

Questo è il mio cane.
This dog is mine.

And this says This is the my dog.

Other examples are:

One popular exception is relatives as a singular noun.

This exception doesn’t apply to plurals: i miei genitori, the my parents, i miei zii, the my uncles, i miei fratelli, the my brothers, and so on.

---

Italian definite articles with countries and geographical locations

Contrary to English, definite articles in Italian precede names for countries, regions and other places.

Strangely enough, you won’t need to add an article with the preposition IN.

---

Italian definite articles with the days of the week

Like in English, weekdays don’t need an article before them.

In case you’re talking about one specific day, however, you need to add an article when there’s an adjective before the day.

---

Telling the time

Italian definite articles are also used for telling the time.

---

Italian definite articles for describing the appearance

Definite articles in Italian are used to describe body parts.

These differences aside, Italian definite articles behave much like the English definite article the. If you feel like using the in English, you should do so in Italian too. Just make sure you pick the correct article in Italian.

And that’s it with the Italian definite articles! If you still have any doubts, feel free to leave a comment.

---

What next?

❤️ If you liked this guide on the Italian definite articles, consider sharing it with your social media friends who are also studying Italian.