The definite article

INDEFINITE

PARTITIVE

Note: for oral practice see "Oral Drills on Italian Grammar #1".

The choice of the article form depends on the sound of the following term first letters. See also preposizioni articolate". The choice is sometimes uncertain, specially for unusual sound in Italian.

According to the grammar in front of terms starting with ps, pn, gn and x we should use "lo" and "uno", one can find on some newspaper also: il psicologo, il pneumatico, il xilofono, il gnocco.

In front of a semi consonant, the article does not take an apostrophe and must be fully pronounced:

lo/uno iato, ioduro, iettatore, iodio, ione, Ionio, iugero, Iugoslavo

la/una iattanza, iattura, iella, iena, iuta.

With some foreign terms the uncertainty is even more evident with some sounds, i.e.:

with the letter	we may have	but also
j	il jet, il judo	lo judo
y	lo yoga, lo yogurt, lo yacht	l'yacht, gli yacht
	lo yeti	l'yeti
w	il weekend, i weekend	l'weekend, gli weekend (pronounced as if were "l'uikend")
x	il xilofono	lo xilofono
h	lo Hegel, l'Hegel	il Hegel

With foreign terms one should consider the sound not only the initial consonant:

in front of	but in front of
choc we use lo : lo choc	chopper we use il (il chopper)
w (sound u) we may use lo: l'walkie-talkie, l'whisky	w (sound v) we use il: il wagon-lit

The  Gender of an Italian term do not correspond necessarily to the equivalent English/American term imported.

Notte (night) is feminine, but the imported English term night (used for night club) is masculine. Therefore we say:

il night.

The following expressions represent an exceptions to the rules:

This uncertainty is also very evident when we compare Modern and Old Italian. Examples:

lo frate sole, lo quale jorna... (San Francesco d'Assisi, sec. XIII);

lo tuo figliolo è preso... (Jacopone da Todi, sec. XIII)

lo esemplo delle azioni sua... (Niccolò Machiavelli, sec. XVI)

fischiando il zappator... (Giacomo Leopardi, XIX sec.)

The feminine form "la" in front of a female last name starting by vowel does not take an apostrophe: "la Aleramo", means Sibilla Aleramo.

The article is particularly important with invariable nouns because is the only way to know gender and number of a term (see also "Nomi invariabili"):

il re, i re; il boia, i boia.

The adjectives BELLO and QUELLO follow the same rules of the Definite article.

ATTENZIONE:

i bei libri (because the consonant "l" requires " i ") but
i libri belli (because "belli " follows the word to which it refers)
i begli specchi (because "s impura" requires " gli ") but
gli specchi belli (because "belli " follows the word to which it refers)

Pronunciation:

The e of bello is open in all forms.

The e of quello is closed in all forms.

BUONO, NESSUNO, CIASCUNO and ALCUNO follow the same rule of the Indefinite article.

Pronunciation:

The o in buono is open in all forms.

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