Articles & Gender
Articles & Gender
Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and the little word in front of it — il, la, lo, l' — has to match. It looks fussy at first, but it follows clear, learnable rules.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
-o Is (Usually) Masculine, -a Is (Usually) Feminine
il ragazzo / la ragazza
the boy / the girl
Nouns ending in -o are almost always masculine and take il (singular) / i (plural). Nouns ending in -a are almost always feminine and take la (singular) / le (plural). Nouns ending in -e can be either gender — there's no shortcut, you simply learn each one's gender along with the word itself, the same way you'd memorize der/die/das in German.
lo and gli: For Awkward Masculine Sounds
lo studente, gli studenti
the student, the students
Masculine nouns starting with z, s+consonant (sp-, st-, sc-...), gn, ps, or x use lo (singular) and gli (plural) instead of il/i — these consonant clusters are awkward to run straight into 'l'. Any singular noun, masculine or feminine, starting with a vowel instead uses l', e.g. l'amico (m), l'amica (f) — smoothing over the vowel clash.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the boy
- English
- the girl
- English
- the student (m)
- English
- the students (m)
- English
- the friend (m)
- English
- the friend (f)
- English
- the book
- English
- the pen
- English
- the backpack
- English
- the books
- English
- the pens
- English
- the water