Singular l’insegnante  [m] l’insegnante  [f] il collega  [m] la collega  [f] l’atleta  [m] l’atleta  [f] the (male) teacher the (female) teacher the (male) colleague the (female) colleague the (male) athlete the (female) athlete Plural gli insegnanti  [m] le insegnanti  [f] i colleghi  [m] le colleghe  [f] gli atleti  [m] le atlete  [f] the teachers [male,  or male and female mixed] the (female) teachers the colleagues [male, or  male and female mixed] the (female) colleagues the athletes [male,  or male and female mixed] the (female) athletes Remember that, as we saw in Unit 1, paragraph 19, the masculine plural form can also denote a class of people in general, as well as a group of males or a mixed group of males and females: e.g.  i cantanti  [m] can denote  either  a group of male singers,  or  a mixed group of male and female singers,  or  singers in general. 5 Like the de fi nite article, the inde fi nite article (English ‘a/an’) has di ff erent forms, depending on the gender of the word it refers to and the letter (or sound) with which the following word begins. There is no plural for the inde fi nite article. Here are the forms: 6 The feminine forms  un’  and  una  are used before feminine words: un’  is used before words beginning with a vowel or  h ; una  is used before words beginning with a consonant: un’auto un’esperienza un’hostess a car an experience a stewardess Feminine Masculine un’ una un uno   a/an   Indefinite article Unit 2 11