There are far more articles in Italian than English. Whilst in English we only use 'the', 'a' and 'an', the Italians change the article for both the gender and plurality of the noun the article refers to. So, let's start with the masculine articles.
The indefinite masculine article (English 'a/an') in Italian is either 'un' or 'un'', depending on whether the following word begins with a vowel or consonant.
Example:
'A cat' translates as 'un gatto'
Whereas 'a hotel' translates as 'un'albergo'.
If the following word begins with a vowel the article will always be un' with the word following it instantly, without a space. This is the case for both feminine and masculine nouns.
The indefinite feminine article (again 'a/an' in English) is 'una' or 'un'' in Italian.
Example:
'A moon' translates as 'una luna'.
Whereas 'a salad' translates as 'un'insalata'.
As you can see, the same rule applies for initial vowels.
I'm trying to keep these lessons brief and bitesize to avoid being a wall of text, but if you want to see this in more detail you can watch my video explaining this here. Next up on this blog I will be covering the definite articles. Cheers.
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