Whend do we use il, lo, la, I, gli, le?

Question

thank you in advance

Answer 1

Il - Male, singular, generally before consonant.

Lo - idem, no rules to diversify with il, only phonetic arrangement, examples: 'il tuono' (the thunder) but 'lo studente' (the student).

La - Female, sing., before any feminine word.

I - M., plural, only before words starting with consonant.

Gli - M., plu., before words starting with vowel or consonant, even for phonetic, examples: 'gli altri' (the other) and 'gli uomini' (the men).

Le - F., plu., before any plural feminine word.

Lo and La can be apostrophized before words starting with vowel, examples: 'l'arco' (M., sing.) (the bow), l'anatra (F., sing) (the duck).

PS - Sorry, but I am forced to say that Beatrice sniffs cocaine, lol!!!

There's not a rule to know if a word is male or feminine? It's paradoxical!!!

The words and adjectives ending in 'o' and 'e' are M., sing., they end in 'i' in the plural form.

The words and adj. ending in 'a' are F.,sing., they end in 'e' in the plural form. So, even without articles, you can know if you are speaking about a man or a woman. In English you are forced to put a personal pronoun to know what gender you are speaking about. In Italian it's enough changing the end of the word or adjective. English: He's good, it's good, she's good. Italian: è buon-o (even for 'it'), è buon-a. English. they are good (but who?). Italian: Ess-i sono buon-i, ess-e sono buon-e.

Answer 2

We Italians like to complicate simple things so we use:

IL (singular) and I (plural) when words start with: b, c, d, f, g, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v and are male gender words,

LA and LE when words start with: b, c, d, f, g, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v and are female gender words.

We also have:

LO and GLI when words star with s, (s+ consonant), ct, ft, gn, ps, pt, pn, , x,  z, i

L' and GLI for words starting with vowels and h of male gender,

L' and LE for words starting with vowels and h of female gender.

There ins't a rule to find if a word is female or male gender.