Fourth Lesson
Lezione Quarta

DEFINITE ARTICLES
ARTICOLI DEFINITI (arTIcoli)

English 'the' has many forms in Italian:

• il with its plural i is used with masculine nouns (and adjetives) beginning with consonants, with the exception of those beginning with z, s with another consonant (sp, sc, str, sm and so on) and gn.
• lo with its plural gli is used with masculine nouns (and adjectives) beginning with any vowel (in this case the singular lo loses the vowel and takes the apostrophe: l') and in sp, sc, str, sm, z and gn.

Lo zio, gli zii (uncle-uncles), lo svizzero, gli svizzeri (SVIZzero, SVIZzeri) (Swiss-Swiss), lo svedese, gli svedesi (Swedish-Swedish), lo spago, gli spaghi (twine-twines), lo straccio, gli stracci (rag-rags), lo straniero, gli stranieri (stranger-strangers), lo gnomo, gli gnomi (gnome-gnomes), l'americano, gli americani (American-Americans), l'aereo, gli arei (aEreo-aErei) (airplane-airplanes), l'eroe, gli eroi (erOe-erOi) (hero-heroes), l'olio, gli oli (oil-oils), l'aceto, gli aceti (vinegar-vinegars), il sale, i sali (salt-salts), il vino, i vini (wine-wines).

• la with its plural le is used with feminine nouns (and adjectives) beginning with consonants and vowels, but in this last case la loses the a and takes the apostrophe l'.

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