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## UNIT TWO 

## Definite and indefinite articles 

## Definite article 

1 In Italian the de fi nite article (English ‘the’) has di ff erent forms, depending on the gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the fol- lowing word, and on the letter (or sound) with which the following word begins. Here are the forms: 

Feminine 

Masculine 

Singular 

la l’ il lo l’ 

Plural 

le le i gli gli 

   the   

2 The feminine forms are used before feminine words, la  and l’  for the singu- lar, and le  for the plural: 

la  is used before words beginning with a consonant; 

l’  is used before words beginning with a vowel ( a , e , i , o , u ) or h ; 

le  is used as the plural for both la  and l’ : 

<img src='content_image/819342.jpg'>

3 There are three di ff erent forms for the masculine singular: il , lo  and l’ ; and two for the plural: i  and gli . All these forms are used before masculine words: 

