Lesson 3 - ARTICLES/PREPOSITIONS

THE ARTICLES

(Gli Articoli) Variable part of speech!

The article is a variable part of speech that is putted first to give a name to a specified value, an indeterminate one or a generic.

1. Definite articles (articoli determinativi): il, lo, la, i gli, le.

	Articles
male, singular	il, lo (l')
male, plural	i, gli (li)
female, singular	la (l')
female, plural	le

Lo and la apostrophize with names starting with vowel.
Gli apostrophizes with names starting with i.
Un' is used only with female names starting with vowel.

Lo, la, le, gli are articles when they precede the name, become pronouns when they are immediately before or after the verb.
Aricle: Lo stereo è sulla scrivania. (The stereo is on the desk)
Pronouns: Ti credevo furbo, ma non lo sei. (I thought you were smart, but you're not)

2. Indefinite articles (articoli indeterminativi): un, uno, una, un'.

The indefinite articles do not have the plural so we have to use partitive forms (PARTITIVE ARTICLES).
Or we can use: alcuni (male)-alcune (female). (Both "some" in english).

               male  - female

singular

uno

un

una (un')

3. Partitive Articles (articolo partitivo): dei, degli, del, dell', dello, delle, della, del'.

• male, singular: del, dell', dello
• female, singular: della, dell'
• male, plural: dei, degli
• female, plural: delle

THE PREPOSITIONS

(Le Preposizioni) Invariable part of speech!

Simple prepositions (preposizioni semplici): di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra, fra.
That are useful for introducing "complements" (complementi) and we will meet them again in logical analysis.

Articulated prepositions (preposizioni articolate - variable in the part of articles): are formed from a mixture of simple prepositions and the definite articles.

• The articulated prepositions derived from "con" (collo, colla, cogli, colle, col, coi) and from "per" (pel, pello, pella, pegli, pelle, pei) are rarely used in modern language. In their place is usually used separated forms (con lo, con la, con gli, con le, con il, con i; per il, per lo, per la, per gli, per le, per i).
• The articulated prepositions derived from "di"  can be used as partitive articles.
  For example: Ho comprato dello zucchero e delle arance. (I bought the sugar and oranges)
  You can use also: Ho comprato un pò di zucchero e qualche arancia. (I bought some sugar and some oranges)

 (Section integrated From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)