Articoli determinativi

Definite articles indicate a specific object (in the general sense: animated and not animated, masculine and feminine, singular and plural).
IL, LO, LA, L’, I, GLI, LE are used for the English article ‘the’.

c1 c2>
  MASCULINE FEMININE
SINGULAR il, lo, l' la, l'
PLURAL i, gli le

Singular:

IL is used with masculine words beginning with most consonants:
il ragazzo - the boy
il giornale - the newspaper

LO is used with masculine words beginning with s + consonant, or with z/gn/pn/ps/x:
lo specchio - the mirror
lo studente - the student
lo zoo - the zoo
lo psicologo - the psychologist

LA is used with feminine words beginning with a consonant:
la mela - the apple
la stazione - the station

L’ (with apostrophe) is used with masculine and feminine words beginning with a vowel:
l’uomo - the man
l’onda - the wave
l’insegnante - the teacher (N.B. both male and female)

Plural:

I is used with masculine words beginning with most consonants:
i colori - the colours
i bambini - the children

GLI is used with masculine words beginning with s + consonant, or with z/gn/pn/ps/x, or with a vowel:
gli zaini - the rucksacks
gli studiosi - the scholars
gli animali - the animals

LE is used with all feminine words:
le mele - the apples
le api - the bees