Indefinite article

The indefinite article (it. l’articolo indeterminativo) in Italian must be adapted to the gender, masculine or feminine. Also, you need to pay attention to the first letter of the word that follows it. Let’s learn the rules of the indefinite article in Italian.

The indefinite article in Italian

un cane a dog

The indefinite article is used to refer to something unknown or something you are mentioning for the first time. In Italian, nouns and articles have two genders, masculine and feminine, and the article must conform to this. It is also important to pay attention to the first letter of the following word. 

Look at the table with the rules:

MASCULINE
before consonant un cane a dog
before vowel un amico a friend
before s+consonant, z, x, y, gn, ps uno zio an uncle
FEMININE
before consonant una casa a house
before vowel unisola an island

Is there no plural?

Basically, in Italian, as in English, there is no plural of the indefinite article. However, in Italian the so-called partitive article is used to indicate an indefinite quantity, and thus represents a kind of plural of the indefinite article. This is usually not translated in English.

dei cani dogs

More on this topic in our lesson on the plural partitive article

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