Partitive Articles

Expressing 'Some' with Food in Italian

In English, you can say 'I want some bread' or 'Do you want some water?'. In Italian, you cannot just use a noun by itself. Instead, you use partitive articles to mean 'some' or 'a portion of'.

How to choose the right article

The form depends on the gender and starting sound of the noun that follows:

• del: masculine singular nouns starting with a consonant (e.g., del pane - some bread)
• dello: masculine singular nouns starting with s+consonant, z, y, ps, gn (e.g., dello zucchero - some sugar)
• dell': masculine or feminine singular nouns starting with a vowel (e.g., dell'acqua - some water)
• della: feminine singular nouns starting with a consonant (e.g., della carne - some meat)
• dei: masculine plural nouns starting with a consonant (e.g., dei panini - some sandwiches)
• degli: masculine plural nouns starting with a vowel, s+consonant, z, etc. (e.g., degli zuccheri)
• delle: feminine plural nouns (e.g., delle mele - some apples)

Examples

• Voglio del formaggio. (I want some cheese.)
• Prendo della zuppa. (I'll have some soup.)
• Mangiamo delle mele. (We eat some apples.)

Common Mistakes

Don't forget to change del, dello, and della to dell' before any noun starting with a vowel! Also, never use bare nouns when you mean an unspecified quantity ('some').