A2 · The articles
Articles with countries and names
Your the United States rule is exactly the Italian one.
At a glance
- Remember
- in plus a country: the article stays at home.
- Form
- l’Italia è bellaItaly is beautiful
- Signal words
- in Italia
- negli
- in Toscana
- nel Lazio
- a Roma
- Trap
- Wrong:Mia sorella studia nella Germania.Right:Mia sorella studia in Germania.
Your turn
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The form
The forms and what they mean
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Italian.
| Italy is beautiful | l’Italia è bella |
| I am going to Italy | vado in Italia |
| in the United States | negli Stati Uniti |
| in Tuscany | in Toscana |
| in Lazio | nel Lazio |
| in Rome | a Roma |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
As a subject a country carries the article.
La Germania è nel centro dell’Europa.Germany is in the middle of Europe.
After in it disappears.
Mia sorella studia in Germania.My sister is studying in Germany.
In the plural it stays.
Ha vissuto negli Stati Uniti per due anni.He lived in the United States for two years.
Cities take a and no article.
Andiamo a Roma in treno.We are going to Rome by train.
Example sentences
L’Italia ha venti regioni.Italy has twenty regions.
Passiamo l’estate in Sicilia ogni anno.We spend every summer in Sicily.
Lavora a Milano ma vive in Svizzera.He works in Milan but lives in Switzerland.
Il vino del Piemonte è molto conosciuto.The wine from Piedmont is very well known.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
After in there is no article, as long as the country is singular and nothing follows it. Vado nella Germania is wrong and vado in Germania is right — while nella Germania del Nord is right again, because del Nord narrows the country down. English draws the same line without noticing: in Germany, but in the Germany of the 1920s.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
A country name takes the article: l'Italia è bella, la Germania, gli Stati Uniti. English does not — Italy, Germany — except in one place, and that place matters here: English puts the in front of plural countries. The United States, the Netherlands, the Philippines. That is the same instinct Italian applies everywhere, so the exception you already have is the rule you need.
Then in arrives and the article disappears: vado in Italia, vivo in Germania. But a plural country keeps it, and so does one with something added: negli Stati Uniti, nell'Italia del Sud. English behaves the same way — in Italy, but in the United States.
Regions behave like countries: la Toscana, in Toscana. A few masculine ones keep the article: nel Lazio, nel Veneto, nel Piemonte.
Cities take no article and go with a: a Roma, a Milano. And in front of a first name, northern speech does add one — la Maria — but writing does not.
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