Lesson 5 - the partitive article

 

The “articolo partitivo” is an article used in the Italian language to indicate:

• a part of something , an indeterminate quantity of a whole group.
• Nouns that don’t have the plural form; ex. Portami dell’acqua —> Bring to me some water.      
• In the plural form is used to indicate “ a few ” in place of the nonexistent plural form of the indefinite article . Ho scattato delle foto —> I have taken some picture  

How these are formed

This type of article is formed by the  preposition “di” and one of the determinate articles. It follows the same rules of the determinate articles for the association of noun. 

	Male	Male	Female
Singular	Di + il = del	Di + lo = dello	Di + la = della
Plural	Di + i = dei	Di + gli = degli	Di + le = delle

In the singular form , it has the meaning of “ a little bit of = un po’ di “ “a certain quantity of ” and it is used before uncountable nouns. 

EX.

Passami del sale => passami un po’ di sale (= give me a little bit of salt )

Ho della farina tra i capelli = ho un po’ di farina tra i capelli (= i have flour in my hair )

In the plural form it has the meaning of “alcuni = some” or “certi” and it is a substitute of the plural’s indeterminate articles.

EX.

Linda ha scattato delle foto che vorrebbe mostrati = Linda took some picture she would like to show you 

It is possible to distinguish the “articolo partitivo ” from the “ preposizioni articolate”,

replacing the article with “a little bit of ” in the phrase , looking if it keeps the same meaning. 

COMBINED PREPOSITION 

Definite Articles + prepositions	Il	Lo	La	Gli	Le	English Translation
Di	del	dello	della	degli	delle	Of the
A	al	allo	alla	agli	alle	To the
Da	dal	dallo	dalla	dagli	dalle	From the
In	nel	nello	nella	negli	nelle	In the
Su	sul	sullo	sulla	sugli	sulle	On the

The preposition “ con ” can be united with only the articles “ il ” con + il = col and the article “ I ”, con + i = coi; the other article when you use “ con ” are written separate. 

Ex. Mi pettino i capelli col pettine —> I brush my hair with the brush 

Cammino a terra coi calzini —> I walk on the flor with socks 

Vado dalla nonna con la bicicletta —> I go to grandma with the bicycle 

The other prepositions such as : “ per ” , “ tra ”, “ fra ” remain separate from the article. 

Ex. Tra le persone —> Between people 

Next lesson --> Singular and plural forms of descriptive adjectives