Lesson 4 - English-Italian Study Guide

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Italian in Thirty Short Lessons
Italiano in Trenta Brevi Lezioni
by Giancarlo v. Nacher Malvaioli

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.

Examples: il bagno, i bagni (bath-baths), il siamese, i siamesi (Siamese-Siameses), il libro, i libri (book-books), il letto, i letti (bed-beds), il quaderno i quaderni (notebook-notebooks), il telefono, i telefoni (teLEfono, i teLEfoni) (telephone-telephones), il messicano, i messicani (mexican-mexicans), il giornale, i giornali (newspaper-newspapers).

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'.

Examples: la chiesa, le chiese (church-churches), la giacca, le giacche (coat-coats), la penna, le penne (pen-pens), la matita, le matite (pencil-pencils), la stanza, le stanze (room-rooms), la finestra, le finestre (window-windows), la porta, le porte (door-doors), la parete, le pareti (wall-walls), la birra, le birre (beer-beers), l'amica, le amiche (friend girl-friend girls), l'edera (Edera), le edere (Edere) (ivy-ivies), l'americana, le americane (American woman-American women), l'inglese, le inglesi (English woman-English women).

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