Unbestimmte Artikel: un, uno, una

Italian "a / an" has four forms. As with "the", the choice depends on the gender of the noun and the sound of the next word.

English "a / an" also changes before a vowel, but the logic is different: English looks at the sound, Italian looks at gender as well. uno goes with the same tricky consonant groups as lo, so if you know lo studente, you know uno studente.

The apostrophe tells you the gender

Before a vowel, the masculine is plain un and the feminine is un' with an apostrophe:

• un amico - a (male) friend
• un'amica - a (female) friend

The two sound the same, so in writing it is the apostrophe that shows the gender. Writing *un'amico is a classic spelling mistake, made by plenty of Italians too.

No plural "a"

Like English, Italian has no plural of "a". Where English says "some" or nothing at all, Italian uses dei / degli / delle or alcuni / alcune:

• un libro → dei libri - (some) books
• uno studente → degli studenti - (some) students
• una mela → delle mele - (some) apples
• Ho comprato alcune cartoline a Firenze. - I bought a few postcards in Florence.

Jobs take no article

After essere, a profession usually has no "a": Sono medico. - I'm a doctor. Mia sorella è architetto. - My sister is an architect. Add an adjective and the article comes back: È un medico bravissimo. - He's an excellent doctor.