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: 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’ : 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: Singular la ragazza la casa la stanza l’auto l’esperienza l’hostess Plural le ragazze le case le stanze le auto le esperienze le hostess the girl(s) the house(s) the room(s) the car(s) the experience(s) the stewardess(es) Feminine Masculine Singular Plural la l’ il lo l’ le le i gli gli    the  