Ambedue, Entrambi: Both

Italian has three ways to say both: entrambi / entrambe, ambedue, and tutti e due / tutte e due. They mean the same thing, but they belong to different registers, inflect differently, and — crucially — they all share one quirky rule that English speakers consistently break: the definite article stays in place between the "both" word and the noun. Saying entrambi i miei amici sounds redundant to an English ear ("both the my friends"?), but Italian insists on it. Drop the article and the construction collapses.

This page lays out the three forms, ranks them by everyday frequency, walks through the article rule with examples and a paradigm table, and shows the small set of pronoun and stand-alone uses where the article naturally disappears. By the end, you should know which form to reach for in conversation, in writing, and on a cover letter.

1. The three forms, ranked by use

In modern Italian, the three options are not interchangeable in register, even when they are interchangeable in meaning.

If you are speaking with friends, tutti e due (or tutte e due for two feminine items) is what comes out of every native mouth. If you are writing an email to a colleague, entrambi (or entrambe) is the safer, more polished choice. Ambedue still appears in legal documents, older literature, and the occasional newspaper headline, but it has the unmistakable feel of an older generation — most Italians under fifty rarely produce it spontaneously.

2. The inflection of entrambi

Unlike ambedue, which never changes, entrambi inflects for gender. There is no number distinction — entrambi is inherently dual, so a singular form would be a contradiction in terms — but the masculine and feminine are clearly differentiated.

The mixed-pair rule is the one English speakers tend to ignore. If you are talking about Marco e Anna — one masculine, one feminine — Italian uses the masculine form entrambi, exactly as it does for any mixed-gender plural. Entrambi sono medici ("both are doctors") covers a brother and sister, two brothers, or two friends of mixed gender. Entrambe is reserved for unambiguously feminine pairs.

3. The article rule — the heart of the page

This is where English speakers stumble. In Italian, the definite article is retained between entrambi / ambedue and the noun. The same is true for tutti e due. The article does not disappear; it nests inside the construction.

The reason this is non-negotiable comes from how Italian thinks about countable definite reference. Entrambi and ambedue are not articles — they are quantifiers that pick out two specific items already in the discourse. To pick something specific out of the world, Italian needs the definite article (i, le, gli) to do the referring work. Entrambi says "both"; the article says "the two we've been talking about." Drop the article and you've lost the definiteness entirely.

This is the same logic that gives Italian tutti i libri (all the books), molti dei miei amici (many of my friends), and alcuni degli studenti (some of the students). Quantifiers stack on top of definite reference; they do not replace it.

When the noun has a possessive

Possessives slot in between the article and the noun, just as they do everywhere else in Italian. The article still stays.

There is one tiny family-term wrinkle: with singular kinship terms, possessives drop the article (mio padre, not il mio padre). But these are singular, and entrambi needs a pair. As soon as you pluralize the family term, the article comes back: entrambi i miei fratelli, never entrambi miei fratelli. The article-drop rule for singular family does not survive the move into the entrambi construction.

4. Entrambi without a noun: pronoun use

When the pair is already known from context, entrambi / entrambe can stand alone as a pronoun, and the article disappears — exactly as it does in English ("Both came").

The pronoun use is fully native and very common. The pattern: when entrambi is followed by a noun, the article is mandatory; when entrambi stands alone, the article is impossible. The two patterns do not interact. Entrambi i ragazzi sono venuti (with noun, with article) and Entrambi sono venuti (no noun, no article) are both right; entrambi ragazzi sono venuti and gli entrambi sono venuti are both wrong.

5. Tutti e due — the everyday workhorse

Tutti e due / tutte e due literally means "all and two" and is the go-to expression in spoken Italian. It inflects for gender exactly like entrambi, and it follows the same article rule before a noun.

The tutti / tutte e due form has the same dual-pattern: with a noun, the article stays (tutti e due i ragazzi); standing alone, the article is gone (tutti e due sono venuti). The third version, with a pronoun, requires no preposition: L'ho fatto tutto e due is wrong — Italian uses tutt'e due (or tutti e due, agreeing with the antecedent) as the standalone form.

By analogy, you can also say tutti e tre, tutti e quattro, tutti e cinque for "all three, all four, all five." This pattern extends as high as Italian feels like counting: tutti e dieci i candidati ("all ten candidates").

The tutti e + numeral construction is one of the most useful patterns in conversational Italian for talking about complete sets, and it follows the article rule of tutti e due exactly.

6. Ambedue — the formal relic

Ambedue is the oldest of the three forms — it descends from Latin ambo duo ("both two") — and it has the unique property among the three of being completely invariable. One form for masculine, feminine, and (theoretically) any number, though in practice it only refers to pairs.

Modern speakers occasionally use ambedue for a slightly elevated stylistic effect — in essays, opinion columns, or formal correspondence. In everyday life it sounds either bookish or vaguely old-fashioned. If you encounter it in a contract, it is doing the same work that entrambi would in a magazine article.

The standalone pronoun use of ambedue exists (Ambedue arrivarono insieme — "Both arrived together") but is rarer; the noun-modifying use is more common.

7. The forms compared, side by side

The three forms can almost always substitute for one another, with only register changing.

In all three sentences, the meaning is identical: "both my friends are Italian." The article i is mandatory in all three. The only thing that varies is the level of formality — and that variation gives Italian one of its many ways of fine-tuning register.

8. Comparison with English

English has both, which (1) does not inflect, (2) does not retain the article, and (3) handles all registers. Italian has three rival forms, two of which (entrambi and tutti e due) inflect for gender, all three of which retain the article before a noun, and all three of which sit at different points on the formality scale. The article-retention rule is the single most counterintuitive feature for English learners: both my friends maps to entrambi i miei amici — note the article — and never to entrambi miei amici. Once that pattern is automatic, the rest is just choosing the right register.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Three forms for "both": entrambi/entrambe (standard, slightly formal), tutti e due / tutte e due (everyday speech), ambedue (formal, dated, invariable).
• Entrambi inflects for gender but not number: entrambi (m. or mixed), entrambe (f. only). Ambedue never changes form.
• The definite article is retained between the "both" word and the noun: entrambi i libri, entrambe le case, tutti e due i miei figli. Dropping the article is the single most common mistake.
• As pronouns (no following noun), entrambi / entrambe / ambedue / tutti e due take no article: Entrambi sono venuti. The two patterns are complementary.
• Tutti e due extends to higher numbers: tutti e tre, tutti e quattro, tutti e cinque, etc., for "all three / four / five" of a known set.
• Coordinated noun phrases ("both X and Y") use sia... sia / sia... che, not ambedue or entrambi. The "both" words are quantifiers over a pair already in the discourse, not coordinators.