Welcome to this online „textbook“ of Italian. It is for all of you who are trying to learn Italian on your own. In this introduction, you will learn some words, you will learn about how they change in plural. You will also learn about the indefinite and definite articles. There are a few very simple exercises for practice. Enjoy
A) Sostantivi italiani /Italian nouns
Conosci queste parole italiane? / Do you know these Italian words ?
Listen and repeat
| pizza | caffè | vino | musica | macchina | colore |
| donna | studente | gelato | stazione | amica | amico |
Notice: some words are “she“(feminine), some are “he“ (masculine)
| feminine (She) | pizza | musica | macchina | donna | stazione | amica |
| masculine (He) | caffè | vino | colore | studente | gelato | amico |
Quali sono le differenze tra queste parole? / What are the differences between these pairs of words?
Listen and repeat
| una pizza – due pizze | one pizza – two pizzas |
| un‘ amica – due amiche | one friend – two friends |
| una stazione – due stazioni | one station – two stations |
| un amico – due amici | one friend – two friends |
| uno studente – due studenti | one student – two students |
all the nouns are either feminine (she) or masculine (he)
they can be singular (one) or plural (more than one)
the endings of the nouns tell us if a noun is “he“ or “she“:
Listen and repeat
| NOUNS | |||
| MASCULINE (he) | FEMININE (she) | ||
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | SINGULAR | PLURAL |
| amico | amici | amica | amiche |
| studente | studenti | stazione | stazioni |
Nouns which do not change in plural: |
words ending in a stressed vowel, e.g.: un caffè - due caffè, una città - due città |
words ending in a consonant , e.g.: un bar – due bar, uno sport - due sport |
abbreviated nouns – una foto (full noun fotografia) – due foto, una moto (full noun motocicletta) -due moto |
B) Sostantivi e aggettivi / Nouns and adjectives
Capisci queste espressioni? / Do you understand these expressions? |
un amico italiano - due amici italiani / one Italian friend – two Italian friends |
The adjectives ending in -o / -a change the ending according |
to the gender and number of the noun. |
The adjectives ending in -e in singular have the same ending with both feminine and masculine nouns in singular. |
In plural, these adjectives have the ending –i with both feminine and masculine nouns. |
Study the following examples:
| NOUNS + ADJECTIVES | ||
| singular | plural | English (singular) |
| una casa nuova | due case nuove | a new house |
| un libro nuovo | due libri nuovi | a new book |
| una città piccola | due città piccole | a small town |
| un parco grande | due parchi grandi | a large park |
| una nave veloce | due navi veloci | a fast ship |
To cut a long story short: nouns and adjectives:
| ending in singular | ending in plural |
| -a | -e |
| -o | -i |
| -e | -i |
C) L´alfabeto / The Alphabet
| A /a/ | B /bi/ | C /t∫i/ | D /di/ | E /e/ |
| F /effe/ | G /d3i/ | H /akka/ | I /i/ | L /elle/ |
| M /emme/ | N /enne/ | O /o/ | P /pi/ | Q /ku/ |
| R /erre/ | S /esse/ | T /ti/ | U /u/ | V /vi, vu/ |
| Z /dzeta/ | ||||
Letter H is never pronounced in Italian, it is only a symbol serving to indicate the pronunciation /k/ or /g/. |
It also occurs in words from foreign languages like: hobby, hotel, but it is not pronounced |
These letters occur in words taken from foreign languages: |
| J /i lunga/ | K /kappa/ | X /iks/ |
| Y /i greca, ipsilon/ | W /vu doppia/ | |
D) L´articolo indeterminativo e determinativo / The indefinite and definite articles
un amico – l´amico / a friend – the friend
The indefinite article: un´, una, un, uno
equivalent of English a /an
The form depends on the gender of the noun and on its beginning:
| Masculine gender | |
| UN ragazzo UN aereo |
if the nouns begins with a vowel* or a consonant** (except the words beginning with s+consonant, z, y, ps, i+vowel, gn,pn,x) |
|
UNO studente UNO psicologo |
if the nouns begins with s+consonant, z, y, ps, i+vowel, gn, pn, x |
| *vowels : a, e, i, o, u | |
| **consonants: b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, z | |
| Feminine gender | |
| UN‘ idea
UN´amica |
if the nouns begins with a vowel* |
|
UNA signora UNA stazione |
if the nouns begins with any consonant** |
| *vowels : a, e, i, o, u | |
| **consonants: b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, z | |
L´articolo determinativo / The definite article: il, la, lo, l´, i, le, gli
equivalent of English the
The form depends on the gender and number of the noun and on its beginning:
| Masculine gender | ||
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |
|
IL ragazzo IL signore |
I ragazzi I signori |
IL – I – if the word begins with a consonant** (except the words beginning with s+consonant, z, y, ps, i+vowel, gn, pn, x) |
| LO studente
LO psicologo |
GLI studenti
GLI psicologi |
LO – GLI – if the word begins with s+consonant, z, y, ps, i+vowel, gn, pn, x) |
| L‘ aereo
L´amico |
GLI aerei
GLI amici |
L‘ – GLI – if the word begins with a vowel* |
| *vowels : a, e, i, o, u | ||
| **consonants: b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, z | ||
| Feminine gender | ||
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |
| LA stazione
LA signora |
LE stazioni
LE signore |
LA – LE – if the word begins with a consonant** |
| L‘ amica
L´idea |
LE amiche LE idee |
L‘ – LE – if the word begins with a vowel* |
| *vowels : a, e, i, o, u | ||
| **consonants: b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, z | ||
All the exercises