Lo article in Italian. Articles of the Italian language: definite and indefinite. Examples of articles in Italian

April 10, 2015

“Neuter article?”, you exclaim in surprise! After all, in Spanish there is no neuter gender, only masculine and feminine. However, there is such a thing in grammar as the article lo, which is classified as neuter. This attribution is quite arbitrary, since in principle it is difficult to call lo and an article. What is this?

The “article” lo is needed in order to give frequent speech - adjectives, participles, adverbs and pronouns - the characteristics and features of nouns.

Let's look at the main cases of using the article lo using examples:

1) Lo + adjective or adverb.

For example: Lo malo es que no podemos cambiar nada. The bad thing is that we can't change anything.

2) Lo + adjective + que. With adjectives, lo is used to make speech more expressive by enhancing the meaning of the adjective.

For example: No puedes imaginar lo guapa que es Lolita. You can't even imagine how beautiful Lolita is.

Lo primero que veo son sus ojos. The first thing I see is his eyes.

Lo único que puedo decir es que te va a gustar mucho. The only thing I can say is that you will really like it.

3) Lo + participle. With participles, lo is used to shorten sentence length and for emphasis.

For example: Todo lo dicho es la pura verdad. Everything said is the pure truth.

Todo lo preparado está en tu habitación. Everything prepared is in your room.

4) Lo + pronoun.

For example: Todo lo mío es tuyo. Everything that is mine is yours.

5) Lo + de + noun, adverb or infinitive. This construction translates as “as regards; what."

For example: Lo de ayer no me causa pánico. What happened yesterday makes me panic.

6) Lo + que + verb. This construction is translated as “that”.

For example: Lo solo que te interesa es mi dinero. The only thing you are interested in is my money.

Lo que veo me deja petrificado. What I see shocks me.

7) Lo in stable expressions:

- a lo mejor - perhaps

- a lo largo de - during, during

- por lo menos - at least

- a lo tonto - stupidly

- por todo lo alto - to the fullest

- por lo mismo - thereby, etc.

Team "Spanish with a smile" hopes that this article will help you understand the complexities of using the neuter article lo and invites you to join the 3-month conversation course "Spanish with a smile", which will help you learn Spanish quickly and with pleasure!

In this lesson we will look at why the article is needed in Italian and understand the difference between the definite and indefinite articles.

In this short story, the words in purple function as articles.

Examples of articles in Italian

In one city there lived a boy. / In una città abitava un bambino.

Why do we write to one city? After all, it is clear that there is one city, there are not two or three.

Simply in this way we make it clear that the city is unknown and in general we are hearing about it for the first time. Therefore, an article is needed here.

If they had written simply: “There lived a boy in the city,” then this sentence at the beginning of the story would have been jarring, because It is unknown which city is being referred to.

Some boy - by this we also show that we are hearing about this boy for the first time. Further.

This boy had a dog. / Il bambino aveva un cane.

Now we already understand what kind of boy we are talking about (the one who lives in the city), so we use “this”, and in Italian the article.

We hear about the dog for the first time, but we already guess that it is a dog unknown to us, but in the Italian language it is not customary to guess, but you need to chew everything. Therefore, an article is placed before the word “dog - cane”.

And one last suggestion.

One day this dog bit a man. / Una volta il cane ha morso un uomo. Here we are already familiar with the dog, so we need an article, but with the man we are not, so we need an article before the man.

Another example.

In a store, you ask the seller: “Give me the package” / “Mi può dare una busta?”

Here you ask for any package, you just need to put the product somewhere. The seller understands this and gives you the package at his discretion. But in Italian, such a trick will not work without an article and you need to use an article.

But if you say to the seller: "Give me this package, please." / "Mi può dare la busta?" You are asking for a specific package. Then in Italian you need to use an article.

It must be said that Italians are annoyed by the habit of our fellow citizens living in Italy of sometimes not consuming them, because... the phrase looks incomplete, as if unfinished, and makes you strain and think to understand what is being said. And thinking, as you know, is also work.

To use articles correctly, you need to know (male or female).

Bottom line

The indefinite article is before an indefinite noun, the definite article is before a concrete noun.

When Russian students learn any Romance or Germanic language, very often they encounter difficulties with articles. And this is natural, because they are not in our native language! First, let's see what there are Italian articles, and then how they are used.

Singular articles / Articoli singolari

	Definite article singular		Indefinite article singular
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
before consonant	il mondo (world)	la famiglia (samya)	un lavoro (work)	una casa (house)
before vowel	l' amore (love)	l' anima (soul)	un orso (bear)	un' amica (friend)
before s + consonant	lo studio (study)		uno studente (student)
before z	lo zucchero (sugar)		uno zucchino ( zucchini)
before ps	lo psycologo (psychologist)		uno pseudonimo (pseudonym)
before gn	lo gnomo (gnome)		uno gnocco (dumpling)
before x	lo xilofon (xylophone)		uno xenofobo (xenophobe)
before y	lo yogurt (yogurt)		uno yacht (yacht)

Comment on the table:

Look through the table carefully, note that for the masculine gender in some cases the article takes on the interesting form lo/uno, this depends on the consonant with which the noun begins . I advise you to memorize letters and letter combinations that have this effect, but later you will automatically write it where necessary, since you will remember which specific words it is used with (there are not many of them, much less than other masculine nouns, with which the usual article il/un is used). Note the apostrophe that appears when the article is shortened in nouns that begin with a vowel.

Regarding the gender of nouns: please note that gender majority Italian words correspond to their Russian counterpart, but not in 100% of cases! For example in Italian we have il cane - dog, il pollo - chicken, l'amore - love; they are all masculine. Fate attenzione, be careful. Starting today, I will write new nouns immediately with an article so that you can remember their gender.

Plural articles / Articoli plurali

	Definite article plural		Indefinite article plural
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
before consonant	i mondi (worlds)	le famigle (family)	dei lavori (works)	delle case (at home)
before vowel	gli amori(love)	le anime (souls)	degli orsi (bears)	delle amiche (friends)
before s + consonant	gli studi (studies)		degli studenti (students)
before z	gli zuccheri (sugar)		degli zucchini (zucchini)
before ps	gli psycologhi (psychologists)		degli pseudonimi (nicknames)
before gn	gli gnomi (gnomes)		degli gnocchi (dumplings)
before x	gli xilofoni (xylophones)		degli xenofobi (xenophobes)
before y	gli yogurt (yogurts)		degli yacht (yachts)

I can imagine how discouraged you are now by the plural indefinite articles! Unfortunately, our knowledge is not yet enough; to understand properly how they are formed, we must first go through prepositions. Therefore, I recommend not going into details yet, given the fact that prepositions are our next topic, so have a little patience.

This site is dedicated to self-learning Italian from scratch. We will try to make it the most interesting and useful for everyone who is interested in this beautiful language and, of course, Italy itself.

Interesting about the Italian language.
History, facts, modernity.
Let's start with a few words about the modern status of the language; it is obvious that Italian is the official language in Italy, the Vatican (simultaneously with Latin), in San Marino, but also in Switzerland (in its Italian part, the canton of Ticino) and in Several districts in Croatia and Slovenia, where a large Italian-speaking population lives, Italian is also spoken by some of the residents on the island of Malta.

Italian dialects - will we understand each other?

In Italy itself, even today you can hear many dialects, sometimes it is enough to travel only a few tens of kilometers to encounter another of them.
Moreover, dialects are often so different from each other that they can seem like completely different languages. If people from, for example, the northern and central Italian “outback” meet, they may not even be able to understand each other.
What is especially interesting is that some dialects, in addition to the oral form, also have a written form, such as the Neopolitan, Venetian, Milanese and Sicilian dialects.
The latter exists, accordingly, on the island of Sicily and is so different from other dialects that some researchers distinguish it as a separate Sardinian language.
However, in everyday communication and, especially, in large cities, you are unlikely to experience any inconvenience, because... Today, dialects are spoken mainly by older people in rural areas, while young people use the correct literary language, which unites all Italians, the language of radio and, of course, television.
It may be mentioned here that until the end of the Second World War, modern Italian was only a written language, used by the ruling class, scientists and in administrative institutions, and it was television that played a big role in the spread of the common Italian language among all inhabitants.

How it all began, origins

The history of the formation of modern Italian, as we all know it, is closely connected with the history of Italy and, of course, no less fascinating.
Origins - in Ancient Rome, everything was in the Roman language, commonly known as Latin, which at that time was the official state language of the Roman Empire. Later, from Latin, in fact, the Italian language and many other European languages arose.
Therefore, knowing Latin, you can understand what a Spaniard is saying, plus or minus a Portuguese, and you can even understand part of the speech of an Englishman or a Frenchman.
In 476, the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, abdicated the throne after the capture of Rome by the German leader Odocar, this date is considered the end of the Great Roman Empire.
Some also call it the end of the “Roman language”, however, even today disputes still rage as to why exactly the Latin language lost its relevance, because of the capture of the Roman Empire by barbarians or was it a natural process and in what language? spoken towards the end of the Roman Empire.
According to one version, in ancient Rome by this time, along with Latin, the spoken language was already widespread, and it is from this popular language of Rome that the Italian that we know as Italian of the 16th century comes from, according to the second version, in connection with the invasion of the barbarians Latin mixed with various barbarian languages and dialects, and it is from this synthesis that the Italian language originates.

Birthday - first mention

The year 960 is considered the birthday of the Italian language. This date is associated with the first document where this “proto-vernacular language” is present - vulgare, these are court papers related to the land litigation of the Benedictine Abbey, witnesses used this particular version of the language so that the testimony would be understandable to as many people as possible, until this moment in all official papers we can only see Latin.
And then there was a gradual spread in the ubiquitous life of the language vulgare, which translates as the people's language, which became the prototype of the modern Italian language.
However, the story does not end there, but only becomes more interesting and the next stage is associated with the Renaissance and with such well-known names as Dante Alighiere, F. Petrarch, G. Boccaccio and others.
to be continued...

On line translator

I suggest that all guests of my blog use a convenient and free Italian online translator.
If you need to translate a couple of words or a short phrase from Russian to Italian or vice versa, you can use the little translator on the sidebar of the blog.
If you want to translate large text or need other languages, use the full version of the online dictionary, where there are more than 40 languages on a separate blog page - /p/onlain-perevodchik.html

Italian language tutorial

I present a new separate section for all Italian language learners - Italian Language Self-Teacher for Beginners.
Making a blog into a full-fledged Italian tutorial is, of course, not easy, but I try to give the most convenient and logical sequence of interesting online lessons so that you can learn Italian on your own.
There will also be a section - an audio tutorial, where, as you might guess, there will be lessons with audio applications that can be downloaded or listened to directly on the site.
How to choose an Italian language tutorial, where to download it, or how to study it online, you will find information about this in my posts.
By the way, if anyone has ideas or suggestions on how best to organize such a tutorial on our Italian blog, be sure to write to me.

Italian on Skype

Secrets of how you can learn Italian on Skype for free, whether you always need a native speaker, how to choose a teacher, how much it costs to learn Italian via Skype, how not to waste your time and money - read about all this in the section “Italian language on Skype.”
Come in, read and make the right choice!

Italian phrasebook

Free, Fun, with a native speaker - a section for those who want to learn words and phrases on certain topics.
Join, listen, read, learn - voiced Italian phrasebook for tourists, shopping, airport, everyday situations and much more
in the section "

Ciao, amici! - Hello, friends!

Come on? Tutto a posto? - How are you? Is everything ok?

In previous lessons we examined nouns and adjectives, we know some exceptions, and I think it’s time to move on to articles. D'accordo? Do you agree?
D'accordo - this expression means: I agree, agree, agree. Remember that this word does not change its form; in any person and number the form will remain: d’accordo.

The definite article (L’ARTICOLO DETERMINATIVO)

What is an article?

Article is a part of speech that is used in conjunction with a noun and is placed in front of it. The article indicates the definiteness/indeterminacy of a noun, and also, precisely, the article will come to our aid in determining what kind of a particular noun is, when it is difficult to determine at the end.

In Italian there are the following types of articles:

"articolo determinativo"- “definite article”
"articolo indeterminativo"- “indefinite article”
"articolo partitivo"- “partial article”

Are you already in a panic? Don't worry!

We will learn articles gradually.

If a noun denotes an object, then it is always used with an article. We put the article in front of the noun, and agree in gender and number with the noun.

Advice:

Get used to using nouns with articles right away. When you learn new words, write them down with the definite article. It will be easier for you.

We will start with the definite article – “l’articolo determinativo”.

The definite article can take several forms. What determines the choice of which article to use?

To begin with, I would like you to understand for yourself how the choice of article occurs. Below I will give you words with the definite article in the singular. Look at them carefully and think about why the following nouns have different article forms:

lo zingaro - gypsy

l'amico - friend

il ragazzo - boy

la bambola – doll

l'universo - universe

l’altalena – swing

Well, friends, have you guessed it?

The choice of article depends not only on the gender and number of the noun, but also on the letter(s) with which the word begins.

Let's figure it out.

So, let's start with the masculine gender.

For masculine singular nouns there will be:

Article "LO"

if they start with:

1) "s + consonant"

(- sp, - st, - sc, etc.)

For example:

lo spettacolo – performance

lo studente – student

lo sci – skis

lo scudo – shield

lo scoiattolo - squirrel

lo spumante – champagne

lo sdegno - indignation

lo scemo - fool, fool

lo specchio - mirror

2) z; y; x;

For example:

lo zero - zero

lo yougurt - yogurt

lo zaino – backpack

lo xylofono – xylophone

lo zucchero – sugar

lo zingaro - gypsy

lo xenofobo - xenophobe

lo yeti - Bigfoot (yeti)

3) for such letter combinations as: "pn", "ps", "gn"

lo psycologo – psychologist

lo pneumatico – tire

lo gnomo - gnome

lo gnocco - dumpling

4) "i + vowel"

There are very few such words in Italian.

lo iettatore - a person with an evil eye, one who can cast the evil eye

lo iodio – iodine

lo iato - gaping (linguistic term)

Article "GLI"

That is, all these masculine nouns, which in the singular had the article “lo”, in the plural will have the article: “gli”

For example:

gli gnomi - gnomes

gli zii – uncles

gli studenti – students

gli sceriffi - sheriffs

gli psicologi - psychologists

gli spettacoli – performances

gli scudi – shields

gli sbagli – errors

gli scopi - goals

Article "IL"

if they begin with all other consonants that do not belong to the group indicated above:

il ragazzo - boy

il mare – sea

il libro – book

il vino – wine

il cibo – food

il panino – sandwich

il testo - text

il quaderno – notebook

The plural of this article will be:

Article "I"

i ragazzi - guys

i mari – seas

i libri – books

i vini - wine

i panini - sandwiches

i quaderni – notebooks

Masculine singular nouns will have an article:

Article “L’”

if these nouns begin with a vowel.

For example:

l'olio - oil

l'albero - tree

l'inno - anthem

l'attore - actor

l’attimo – moment, instant

l'occhio - eye

The plural of this article will be:

Article "GLI"

gli oli – oils

gli alberi – trees

gli inni – hymns

gli attori – actors

gli attimi - moments

gli occhi – eyes

We've sorted out the masculine gender, friends. Now let's move on to feminine nouns. With the feminine gender everything is a little simpler. We will have two forms of the definite article: “la” and “l’”. You guessed absolutely correctly when we will use which article.

Feminine singular nouns will have an article:

Article "LA"

If they begin with any consonant.

For example:

la donna - woman

la studentessa - student

la borsa - bag

la barzelletta - joke

la professoressa - professor (female)

la stanza – room

la camera da letto - bedroom

The plural of this article will be:

Article "LE"

le donne – women

le studentesse - female students

le borse – bags

le barzellette - jokes

le professoresse – professors (women)

le stanze – rooms

le camere da letto – bedrooms

Feminine singular nouns will have:

Article “L’”

if these nouns begin with a vowel.

For example:

l'amica - friend

l’età – age

l'albicocca - apricot

l'università - university

l'ispirazione - inspiration

The plural of this article will be:

Article "LE"

le amiche - friends

le albicocche – apricots

le università – universities

le ispirazioni - inspiration

Conclusion: Feminine plural nouns always have the definite article: “le”.

Friends, we will not now analyze when a definite article is used and when some other one is used. At this point, you should learn the forms of the definite article well and get used to using it. In the future, when we learn other articles, we will analyze their use.

Learning to choose an article

We look at the ending of the noun

Determine its gender and number
We look at what letter the word begins with and, depending on this, choose the correct definite article

Now, let's look at two very important verbs in Italian.

These are the verbs: “to be” and “to have”. These two verbs are irregular, therefore, dear sir and lady, you just need to learn them. These verbs are used in various phrases that we will look at.

In order to conjugate a verb we need pronouns.

"Singolare" - "Singular"
"io"- "I"
"tu"- "You"
"lui"- "He"
"lei"- "she"
"Lei"- “You” (this is a polite form of address, to one person using “You”, both a man and a woman)
"Plurale" - "Plural"
"noi"- "We"
"voi"- "You"
"loro"- "They"

Verb "ESSERE"

"be"

"Essere" is the initial form of the verb, the infinitive. What to do? Be. To conjugate this verb by person: I am, you are, etc., we must change the form of the verb depending on the person and number.

Io – sono – I am
Tu – sei – you exist
Lui, lei, Lei - è - he, she, you are
Noi – siamo – we are
Voi – siete – you are
Loro – sono – they exist

Please note that in the 3rd person singular there is a graphic stress above the verb form. It should be placed exactly in this direction (from the upper left corner down).

Don’t forget to put it in the letter, because otherwise you will end up with the conjunction “e”, which is translated into Russian as “and”.
We can omit pronouns when we understand who we are talking about, since the form of the verb indicates who we are talking about. But at the beginning, when you are just learning, we advise you to pronounce the form of the verb with a pronoun each time in order to remember it faster.
And we, dear friends, can already say with the help of this verb what our name is:

Io sono Daria.

I am Daria.
(literally it turns out: I am Daria)

E tu sei Mario?

Are you Mario?
(Are you Mario?)

No, io sono Andrea.

No, I'm Andrea.

We can also combine the adjectives that we have learned and this verb.

For example:

"triste" – sad

"felice" - happy

Perché tu sei triste?

Why are you sad?

No, non sono triste. Io sono felice.

No, I'm not sad. I'm happy.

To form a negation, as in the last example, we put the negative particle “non” in front of the verb.

Maria and Alessio sono felici.

Maria and Alessio are happy.

Set expression:
"essere in ritardo"- be late
(lit. to be late)

To conjugate this phrase, we only need to change the form of the verb “essere”, “in ritardo” does not change)

Io – sono in ritardo – I’m late
Tu – sei in ritardo – you are late
Lui, lei, Lei - è in ritardo - he, she, you are late
Noi – siamo in ritardo – we are late
Voi – siete in ritardo – you are late
Loro – sono in ritardo – they are late

Verb "AVERE"

"have"

In the conjugation of this verb, in some forms, our silent letter “h” is added. Do not forget that this letter has no sound, that is, it is written but not pronounced.

Io – ho – I have
Tu – hai – you have
Lui, lei, Lei – ha – he has, she has, you have
Noi – abbiamo – we have
Voi – avete – you have
Loro – hanno – they have

This verb is used in many fixed expressions. We'll look at some of them now.

ave fame- want to eat (literally: to have hunger)

avere sete- want to drink (literally: to be thirsty)

avere freddo– to experience cold (literally: to have cold)

avere caldo– to experience heat (literally: to have heat)

Friends, remember these phrases verbatim so that you don’t get confused.

In all these phrases (listed above), only the form of the verb “avere” will change, the nouns: “fame” - hunger, “sete” - thirst, “freddo” - cold, “caldo” - heat, will not change their form when conjugated.

For example:

Io – ho fame – I want to eat, I’m hungry, I’m hungry
Tu – hai fame – do you want to eat
Lui, lei, Lei - ha fame - he is hungry, she is hungry, you are hungry
Noi – abbiamo fame – we want to eat
Voi – avete fame – you are hungry
Loro – hanno fame – they want to eat