il
masculine plural of the definite article "il"
"the" (masculine plural definite article)
Definitions
-
1
Used before masculine plural nouns starting with a consonant (except 'z', 's+consonant', etc., which take 'gli') to mean 'the'.
“I ragazzi giocano a calcio nel parco ogni sabato.”
The boys play soccer in the park every Saturday.
-
2
Used with plural nouns to refer to a general or specific group of masculine things.
“I libri di quella biblioteca sono molto antichi e preziosi.”
The books in that library are very old and precious.
Word forms
- Gender
- masculine
- Plural
- i
- Usage
- This is the plural form of 'il'; it is used before masculine plural nouns beginning with most consonants. Nouns beginning with 'z', 'gn', or 's+consonant' use 'gli' instead.
Not to be confused with the pronoun 'io' (I) or the letter name; 'i' here is purely grammatical, with no stress, and always precedes a noun or adjective+noun.