The Definite Article - L'articolo determinativo

L'articolo determinativo— The Definite Article

This is the grammatical name for the English word “the”.

1 Feminine nouns — easy.

If the feminine noun is singular, use LA (or abbreviate it to L'if the noun begins with a vowel). If the feminine noun is plural use LE and never abbreviate it, even if the noun begins with a vowel. For example:

singular	plural
la ragazza	le ragazze
la casa	le case
l'ora	le ore
l'erba	le erbe
la chiave	le chiavi
la notte	le notti
l'opinione	le opinioni
l'opportunità	le opportunità

2 Masculine nouns — tricky.
There is only one word for "the" for feminine nouns, but before a masculine noun you need to choose between IL and LO. You make the choice depending on how the masculine noun begins. You should find that you choose IL most of the time. Here are the rules:

1. Use IL and its plural I when the masculine noun begins with a consonant.
2. Use LO and its plural GLI when the masculine noun begins with a vowel, or z or “impure s” — i.e. the letter s followed by another consonant. LO can be abbreviated to L' before a word beginning with a vowel.
3. Remember that any nouns borrowed from another language are masculine and have no plural.

This table summarises all you need to know about masculine nouns and there articles:

singular	plural
il ragazzo	i ragazzi
il ristorante	i ristoranti
l'albergo	gli alberghi
lo sbaglio	gli sbagli
lo zio	gli zii
l'ufficiale	gli ufficiali
lo sport	gli sport
il film	i film

If you can master how to change words from singular to plural a huge amount of Italian grammar will become very easy. It is vital that you try very hard to master this piece of grammar before you move on.
If you can master the definite article, you will be able to understand and use correctly some necessary but rather tricky pieces of Italian grammar, so try to master this before you move on.
L'articolo indeterminativo — The Indefinite Article
This is the grammatical name for the English word “a”.
1 Feminine nouns — easy.
The word for “a” before a feminine noun is una which can be abbreviated to un' if the noun begins with a vowel.
2 Masculine nouns — less easy.
The usual word is un which is used before all masculine nouns (including those which begin with a vowel) except those which begin with z or s impure. Study the following table which should explain it all.

masculine	feminine
un ragazzo	una ragazza
un amico	un'amica
un ospedale	un'intezione
uno sconto	una scarpa
uno specchio	una specie
uno zingaro	una zingara
un salmone	una salsiccia
un trattore	una trattoria