THE INDEFINITE ARTICLES - Gli articoli indeterminativi

The indefinite articles corresponding to the English “a, an” are:

UN    UNO     for masculine words

UN’   UNA     for feminine words

Let’s see when to use UN or UNO before masculine words:

We use UN before words starting with a vowel, or starting with a consonant.

For example we say UN ALBERGO (a hotel), UN ARMADIO (a wardrobe) as they start with vowels, and UN LAVORO (a job), or UN BAMBINO (a child) as they begin with a consonant.

BUT:  With words beginning with S+another consonant, Z, GN and PS we use UNO.

For instance, we say UNO SPETTACOLO (a show) as it begins with S followed by another consonant, UNO ZAINO (a backpack), UNO PSICHIATRA (a psychiatrist) and so on…

For feminine words we use UN’ or UNA:

UNA before wirds starting with any consonant with no exceptions.

UN’ before words beginning with a vowel.

For example we say: UNA FINESTRA (a window), UNA PAROLA (a word), but we say UN’ARANCIA (an orange), UN’ANATRA (a duck), UN’ESTATE (a summer) as they start with a vowel and in this way they’re easier to pronounce.

It is important to remember the apostrophe of UN’ in the feminine, as in certain cases it may change the gender of the following word:

For example, the word INSEGNANTE can be both masculine or feminine, according to the context.

But if I write UN INSEGNANTE (without apostrophe), the noun is masculine, if we put the apostrophe (UN’INSEGNANTE), it becomes feminine and it refers to a female teacher.      

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