Conditional: The courtesy form vorrei means I would like; taught here as a fixed useful expression.

Article: A noun-introducing form: il, lo, la, un, una.

Articles and polite orders

Italian nouns have gender. You usually learn the noun together with its article: il bar, la chiave, il caffè, la torta. This helps you speak more naturally from the start.

Use un with many masculine singular nouns: un bar, un caffè. Use una with feminine singular nouns: una chiave, una torta. Before a feminine noun starting with a vowel, use un’: un’amica.

Definite articles mean “the”: il, la, l’. For example, la chiave is “the key” and l’amica is “the friend”.

A very useful polite chunk in cafes and shops is vorrei... = “I would like...”. Treat it as a fixed expression for now: Vorrei un tè. You do not need the full grammar yet.

• Vorrei un caffè.I would like a coffee.

• Ecco la Sua chiave.Here is your key.

• Questa è una torta.This is a cake.

• Sofia è un’ amica di Milo.Sofia is a friend of Milo's.

• Il bar è di sotto.The café is downstairs.

• Vorrei un tè senza zucchero.I would like a tea without sugar.

• Sono un nuovo vicino.I am a new neighbour.

  Sono una nuova vicina.I am a new neighbour.

• La chiave non è mia.The key is not mine.

Before the letter s plus another consonant, and before the letter z, a masculine singular noun normally uses lo or uno: lo studente, uno studente; lo zucchero. Before a vowel, the definite article is l’ for both genders: l’amico, l’amica. Indefinite masculine un has no apostrophe: un amico; feminine un’ has one: un’amica. The plural articles are i for nouns using il, gli for nouns using lo or masculine l’, and le for all feminine nouns: i libri, gli studenti, gli amici, le amiche.