Lesson number 4

[Flinn]

Part 1

Italian Articles, Gender & Number

Articles, gender and number are the first steps to learn Italian properly. Let's start to practice these very important elements of Italian grammar.

Definite Articles – Gli articoli determinativi
Italian articles identify the gender and number of nouns; they can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

In Italian, we have 2 feminine definite articles for the singular form and 1 for the plural form:



Here are some examples:

La borsa The bag – Le borse The bags
La finestra The window – Le finestre The windows
La porta The door – Le porte The doors
L’ora The hour – Le ore The hours
L’alba The dawn – Le albe The dawns
L’aula The classroom – Le aule The classrooms

The masculine definite articles in Italian are 3 for the singular form and 2 for the plural form:



Here are some examples:

Il tavolo The table – I tavoli The tables
Il letto The bed – I letti The beds
Il cane The dog – I cani The dogs
L’amico The friend – Gli amici The friends
L’orto The garden – Gli orti The gardens
L’uomo * The man – Gli uomini * The men
Lo scoiattolo The squirrel – Gli scoiattoli The squirrels
Lo zio The uncle – Gli zii The uncles
Lo gnomo The gnome – Gli gnomi The gnomes
Lo psichiatra The psychiatrist – Gli psichiatri The psychiatrists
Lo yeti The yeti – Gli yeti The yetis
Lo pneumologo The pulmonologist – Gli pneumologi The pulmonologists
Definite articles are used:

To indicate specific people or objects

Questa è la macchina di Luca – This is Luca’s car
La borsa di Paola è molto bella – Paola’s bag is very beautiful
With possessive adjectives and pronouns

Mi piace il mio lavoro – I like my job
La tua stanza è al terzo piano, la mia è al secondo – Your room is on the third floor, mine is on the second
With abstract and general nouns, including colours

L’amicizia è molto importante per me – Friendship is very important to me
Mi piace il nero – I like black
With parts of the body and clothes

Stasera mi metto la cravatta – Tonight I’m going to wear a tie
Mi sono rotto il braccio – I broke my arm
With dates, *if the day of the week is not mentioned before

Il mio compleanno è il 7 (sette) Aprile – My birthday is the 7th of April
*Il mio compleanno è giovedì 7 (sette) Aprile – My birthday is Thursday the 7th of April
Mi sposo il 2 (due) Giugno 2020 (duemilaventi) – I’ll get married on the 2nd of June 2020
With times or other expressions of time

Sono le cinque e mezza – It’s half past five
La mattina mi sveglio alle 7:00 (sette) – I wake up at 7 in the morning
With the days of the weeks to show habitual actions

Il martedì e il giovedì andiamo a lezione di italiano – Every Tuesday and Thursday we go to Italian lessons
Il sabato e la domenica esco sempre con i miei amici – On Saturdays and Sundays I always go out with my friends
With physical descriptions when the verb “avere” (to have) is used

Luca ha gli occhi azzurri – Luca has blue eyes
Maria ha i capelli rossi – Maria has red hair
With titles and qualifications used with names

Il Dottor Bianchi è molto bravo – Doctor Bianchi is very good
Il principe William si è sposato nel 2011 (duemilaundici)– Prince William got married in 2011
With most geographical names, *except for city names and when the prepositions “in” or “di” come before feminine singular geographical names

L’italia ha 20 (venti) regioni – Italy has 20 regions
La Lombardia è una regione italiana – Lombardy is an Italian region
*Vado a vivere in Italia – I’m going to live in Italy
*Il mio ragazzo è di Roma – My boyfriend is from Rome
Sometimes with famous people:

Il Botticelli dipinse la Nascita di Venere – Botticelli painted the Birth of Venus
Sometimes when talking about friends or family members colloquially

La Giulia viene a cena con noi sabato sera – Giulia is coming to dinner with us on Saturday night
Il Mauri è troppo simpatico! – Mauri is too kind!
! Definite articles are not used:

When talking about languages, they cannot be used after the verbs “parlare, insegnare, studiare” and after the prepositions “in” and “di”

Capisco lo spagnolo, ma non l‘italiano – I understand Spanish but not Italian
Alex parla italiano abbastanza bene – Alex speaks Italian quite well
Non so scrivere in inglese – I can’t write in English
With singular possessive adjectives when talking about family members, *except for singular family members with the possessive adjective “loro” or when names have been made more colloquial

Mio fratello si chiama Stefano – My brother is called Stefano
Mio padre ha 62 (sessantadue) anni – My father is 62 years old
*Il loro zio vive a Mosca – Their uncle lives in Moscow
*Sono felice di conoscere la loro figlia – I am happy that I met their daughter
*Il mio fratellino si chiama Gabriele – My little brother is called Gabriele
*La mia cuginetta ha 2 (due) mesi – My little cousin is 2 months old
With city names, *although there are some exceptions such as La Spezia, L’Aquila, L’Avana, Il Cairo, La Mecca

Firenze è una città antica, New York è una città moderna – Florence is an old city, New York is a modern city
*La Spezia si trova in Liguria – La Spezia is in Liguria

[Flinn]

Part 2

Italian Articles, Gender & Number

Indefinite Articles – Gli articoli indeterminativi
Indefinite articles are used to introduce someone or something new, not previously mentioned; or to talk about someone or something in a more general and undefined way.

Just as with the definite articles, in Italian there are 2 feminine indefinite articles for the singular form and 1 for the plural form:



Here are some examples:

Una ragazza A girl – Delle ragazze Some girls
Una mela An apple – Delle mele Some apples
Una studentessa A student – Delle studentesse Some students
Un’insalata A salad – Delle insalate Some salads
Un’aula A classroom – Delle aule Some classrooms
Un’ora An hour – Delle ore Some hours

And for the masculine form, there are 2 indefinite articles for the singular form and 2 for the plural form:



! Pay attention: with indefinite articles an APOSTROPHE is used only with FEMININE nouns (eg. “un’amica”) and NOT with MASCULINE ones (eg. “un amico”)

Here are some examples for the masculine form:

Un bicchiere A glass – Dei bicchieri Some glasses
Un coltello A knife – Dei coltelli Some knives
Un telefono A phone – Dei telefoni Some telephones
Un amico A friend – Degli amici Some friends
Un orto A garden – Degli orti Some gardens
Un uomo * A man – Degli uomini * Some men
Uno scoiattolo A squirrel – Degli scoiattoli Some squirrels
Uno zio An uncle – Degli zii Some uncles
Uno gnomo A gnome – Degli gnomi Some gnomes
Uno psichiatra A psychiatrist – Degli psichiatri Some psychiatrists
Uno yeti A yeti – Degli yeti Some yetis
Uno pneumologo A pulmonologist – Degli pneumologi Some pulmonologists
Indefinite articles are used for:

People, animals or things which are not known by the person speaking

Una persona ha suonato il campanello – A person rang the bell
Ieri ho trovato un cane – Yesterday I found a dog
Undefined people, animals or things

Vorrei un gelato – I would like an ice cream
Prendi un libro in libreria – You take a book from the library
Parts of the body (of which there are more than one)

Maria si è rotta un ginocchio – Maria broke her knee
[ma: *Maria si è rotta il ginocchio sinistro – but: * Maria broke her left knee]
Stefano ha un occhio gonfio – Stefano has a swollen eye
[ma: *Stefano ha gli occhi gonfi – but: * Stefano has swollen eyes]

[Flinn]

Part 3

Italian Articles, Gender & Number

Noun and Gender (masculine and feminine) – Il nome e il genere (maschile e femminile)



Singular nouns ending in – A are feminine, and change to end in -E in the plural form:



Singular nouns ending in -E can be either masculine or feminine: there is no special rule to help identify them, only studying and practicing them!
However, the plural form always ends in – I (masculine) and -e (feminine), as shown in these examples:



Some exceptions to the rules:

La radio The radio – Le radio The radios
Il programma The programme – I programmi The programmes
L’uovo The egg – Le uova The eggs
L’uomo The man – Gli uomini The men
Il problema The problem – I problemi The problems
La mano The hand – Le mani The hands
Il bar The bar – I bar The bars
Il cinema The cinema – I cinema The cinemas

Nouns that have been taken from other languages or that end in an accent are invariable, and so we just change the article in the plural form:

Il computer The computer – I computer The computers
La email The email – Le email The emails
Il caffè The coffee – I caffè The coffees
Il papà The dad – I papà The dads

! PAY ATTENTION: to change a noun from singular to plural, always remember to change both the article and the ending!

[Flinn]

Exercises

Please PM me your homework, do not post them here.

Definite articles

Choose the right article

1. ____ Italia.
-La
-L'
-Le

2. ____ caffè.
-Il
-I
-Lo

3. ____ spaghetti.
-I
-Gli
-Lo

4. ____ studente.
-La
-Il
-Lo

5. ____ lezione.
-La
-Le
-Il

6. ____ amico.
-Il
-L'
-I

Indefinite articles

Choose the right article

1. ____ cane.
-Dei
-Un
-Una

2. ____ caffè.
-Il
-Dei
-Un

3. ____ uomini.
-I
-Degli
-Una

4. ____ ombrello.
-Un
-Il
-Gli

5. ____ cartella.
-Una
-Delle
-La

6. ____ gatto.
-Un
-Dei
-Il

Number

Change the Italic part from the singular to the plural and vice versa

1. La borsa è nuova
2. Il ragazzo è intelligente
3. Le lezioni sono difficili
4. La città è moderna
5. Gli studenti sono olandesi
6. Lo zaino è blu
7. Il giornale è interessante
8. L’isola è deserta

[Kilo11]

May I make a small request: Would you mind editing the lesson in part 1 so that the numbers used there have the numbers spelled out in parentheticals? Just so that we can start figuring out the details of the numbers as we go along with these things.

EX: Where you have " Il mio compleanno è il 7 Aprile – My birthday is the 7th of April", change that to " Il mio compleanno è il 7 (settimo) Aprile – My birthday is the 7th of April"

[Flinn]

It's done

However, in Italian we don't use ordinal numbers for date, but cardinal ones, so it's not the Settimo di Aprile, but il Sette di Aprile

we will see numbers in details in the future, don't worry