Italian Definite Articles & Possession
Weilà raga! Here are notes of everything I went over in my video on Italian Definite Articles & Possession (how to say "my" in Italian).
In Italian, there are several ways of saying "the." It depends on the amount of things you're referring to and their gender. In Italian, both people and objects have genders.
Here are all of the different ways to say "the" in Italian: il, la, i, le, l', lo, gli
To make things easier when learning these definite articles for the first time, I consider there to be 7 definite articles in Italian, as you can see above. However, in reality there are only 6. You see, the L' definite articles is actually the same as using il or la, but the word that follows begins with a vowel. So what happens is you combine the definite article and the word that begins with a vowel to have something that looks like this: l'amore (= il + amore), l'aula (= la + aula).
Let's now take a look at all of the definite articles (which I'll be dividing into 7 sections) and when and how they're used in Italian:
il (pronounced eel) - THE for masculine, singular words that end in O
ex: il libro = the book
i (pronounced like the letter e in English) - THE for masculine, plural words. Change word ending from O - I
ex: il libro becomes I LIBRI = the books
la (pronounced as it's written, la) - THE for feminine, singular words that end in A
ex: la porta = the door
le (pronounced leh) - THE for feminine, plural words. Change word ending from A - E
ex: la porta becomes LE PORTE = the doors
lo (pronounced lò) - THE for masculine, singular words that start with s+consonant (consonant = any letter that's not a vowel) or z.
ex: lo schermo = the screen, lo zaino = the backpack
gli (pronounced ji or yee) - THE for masculine, plural words that start with s+consonant or z. Change word ending from O - I
ex: lo schermo (the screen) becomes GLI SCHERMI = the screens; lo zaino (the backpack) becomes GLI ZAINI = the backpacks
l' - THE for masculine or feminine words that begin with a vowel
ex: l'anno = the year
For masculine words that begin with a vowel, to make plural use GLI and change word ending from O to I, like with all masculine words
ex: l'anno (the year) becomes GLI ANNI = the years
For feminine words that begin with a vowel, to make plural use LE and change word ending from A to E, like with all feminine words
ex: l'aula (the classroom) becomes LE AULE = the classrooms
For feminine words that end with an accent mark on the last letter, DO NOT change the last letter from A to E when making the word plural. Just change the definite article from LA to LE
ex: l'università (the university) becomes LE UNIVERSITÀ = the universities
ex2: la città (the city) becomes LE CITTÀ = the cities
Now let's move onto seeing how to say "my" in Italian. You'll find the logic to be similar to that of the definite articles above:
il mio (pronounced eel-me-yo) - MY for masculine, singular words
ex: il mio libro = my book
i miei (pronounced e-meyay) - MY for masculien, plural words. Change word ending from O - I
ex: il mio libro (my book) becomes I MIEI LIBRI = my books
la mia (pronounced as it's written la-meya) - MY for feminine, singular words
ex: la mia macchina = my car
le mie (pronounced leh-me-eh) - MY for feminine, singular words. Change word ending from A - E
ex: la mia macchina (my car) becomes LE MIE MACCHINE = my cars
DO NOT USE L', GLI, AND LO WITH MY
Just say: IL MIO ZAINO (my backback) and I MIEI ZAINI (my backpacks)
LA MIA AULA (my classroom) and LE MIE AULE (my classrooms)
Always remember to SPREAD THE LOVE!
Tom