Mr Monday, Mrs breakfast, Mr son, MRS school, Mrs rain, Mrs clouds, Mrs week but Mr weekend, is that right?
See? I’m still doing it. Trying to think like an Italian.
Last time I decided to work on gender. You can read how here.
Today being Mr Monday, I’m pressed for time, so I think I’ll tackle something simple: “the”.
My Italian students (learning English) have terrible trouble with “the”. You think YOU make lots of mistakes? You should hear those guys!
Mostly, the definite article is used in the same way in English in Italian. Though of course you do have to remember to use the right one in Italian, depending on whether your noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.
- La mattina
- Le nuovole
- Il lunedì
- I problemi
- Lo specchio
But that’s not what causes the difficulty, for Italians at least.
The problem is that in English we use the definite article for specific, known things: THE work I have to do this week, THE last article I wrote in this series, etc.
That’s also true in Italian, but not only. In Italian, the definite article is also used for abstract nouns: concepts, ideas, and the like.
So, in English we’d use: “love” (abstract) but “THE love that dare not speak it’s name” (specific).
In Italian, you’d “the” both of these.
“Make love not war” in English would therefore be “Fare l’amore non la guerra” (THE Mrs love, THE Mrs war…)
See?
It’s one of those cases where it’s not the grammar itself that trips you up, but the way Italians conceptualize things. Obviously, “love” is definite, right?
If that’s not obvious to you (or to me), then it’s another case of having to think Italian, like an Italian, in order to get it straight.
So, over to you. Can you think of other nouns that would normally take a definite article in Italian but not in English?
Leave a comment with your examples. Maybe we can come up with a nice long list for everyone to study.
Here’s one that I always get wrong, just to get us started: lo stress (The Mr stress).
Sieglind D'Arcy says
Ah yes, there are rules and then the exceptions and then common usage and then……
Personally, German being my mother-tongue, the idea of gender articles is not new to me – hey we even have 3 – but I’ve found that the most reliable way to get the gender right is to find the tune, the music, the cadence in Italian. For example, when I did the exercise on the website I instinctively wanted to answer “la televisione” because it sounded right, but then I started thinking – not a good idea – and put “il” instead. It’s one of the reasons I love Italian: it’s pure music. If you train your ear you can pick up the wrong note.
Daniel says
It’s true, Sieglind, that in time you get an idea of what sounds right. But it does take a really LONG time to get to that point. A good course (or helpful article maybe) can cut short the learning curve….
John Thomson says
un po di piu
il dentista la dentista
la foto = la fotografia
ciao
John
John Thomson says
dalla cima della mia testa
vado al cinema ma vado a casa e vado a scuola
Perchè
John
Livia Livia says
I would say that the article is being used in a different way by name of the days: il lunedí, il giovedí..-it means repetition; each Monday, each Thursday and not the Monday. Further, Italians use articles nearly always with possessive pronouns- il mio cane, la mia borsa- my dog, my bag.
Daniel says
Yes, you’re right about both of these things, Livia. Thanks for your contribution!