Elision of Lo and La

When the singular third-person clitics lo and la sit in front of a verb form that begins with a vowel (or with an unpronounced silent h, as in ho, hai, ha, hanno), they elide to l' — written as a single character followed by an apostrophe, attached to the next word with no space. Lo ho is not Italian; the standard form is l'ho. La aspetto is not Italian; the standard is l'aspetto.

This is the most frequent orthographic pattern produced by the Italian clitic system. It happens dozens of times in any normal conversation, and it produces some of the most distinctive short forms in the language: l'ho visto, l'ho fatto, l'ho detto, l'ho capita, l'ho aperta, l'ascolto, l'aspetto, l'ho amato.

The page below covers exactly which clitics elide, when, and where the trap lies — the famous fact that l'ho in writing is identical for masculine and feminine, and the past participle is the only thing that tells you which is meant.

The rule: lo and la elide before a vowel

Before any verb form that starts with a vowel — including the silent-h forms of avere (ho, hai, ha, hanno, abbia, avessi, avrei, avrò...) — both lo and la drop their final vowel and combine with the verb via an apostrophe:

The elision is mandatory in writing for lo and la in front of a vowel. Lo ho visto and La ho vista are non-standard; learners and even some native writers occasionally produce them, but they are wrong in any careful Italian.

The crucial trap: l'ho is gender-ambiguous in writing

In writing, l'ho for masculine lo + ho and l'ho for feminine la + ho are the same string of letters. The apostrophe-l-h-o sequence does not tell you whether the underlying clitic was lo (masculine) or la (feminine).

The disambiguation comes from the past participle, which (as covered in the direct-object overview) agrees in gender and number with a preceding direct-object clitic. So:

• L'ho visto. = Lo + ho visto, masculine — "I saw him."
• L'ho vista. = La + ho vista, feminine — "I saw her."

The participle is the only signal of gender. Get it wrong, and the meaning shifts.

What does NOT elide

The elision rule is narrow: only lo and la elide, and only before vowel-initial verbs. Several near-misses do not elide and are worth memorizing:

Li and le (the plural clitics) do NOT elide

The masculine plural li and feminine plural le stay as separate words. L'ho visti is wrong; the correct form is li ho visti. L'ho viste is wrong; the correct form is le ho viste.

The reason is functional: if li and le elided to l', you would lose the singular/plural distinction. L'ho visto would be ambiguous between "I saw him" (singular) and "I saw them" (plural), which Italian cannot tolerate. By keeping the plurals unelided, Italian preserves the contrast.

Mi, ti, ci, vi: elision is OPTIONAL and increasingly rare

The first- and second-person clitics mi, ti, ci, vi do not normally elide in standard modern written Italian. You write mi ha detto, ti ho cercato, ci ha invitati, vi avevo avvertito — separately.

A handful of elided forms (m'ama, t'amo, c'è, c'era, v'è) survive in fixed expressions, in poetry, and in older or stylistically marked prose, but they are not the norm. C'è ("there is") and its compound c'era ("there was") — though arguably reanalyzable as adverbial ci + è/era — are the only forms genuinely required to be elided in modern Italian; the rest are stylistic choices.

In writing, leave mi, ti, ci, vi separate. Mi ha chiamato is correct; m'ha chiamato is acceptable in informal text messages and song lyrics but not in standard prose.

Ne does NOT elide

The clitic ne ("of it / of them / from there") stays unelided before vowels in modern standard Italian: ne ho due, ne ho parlato, ne abbiamo bisogno — not n'ho. Some dialectal and poetic forms with n' exist (n'è arrivato uno) but they are not standard.

This is one of the most common spelling mistakes. Many learners assume ne must follow the same elision rule as lo and la, but it does not. In standard Italian, write ne ho as two words.

The capital L' for formal "you"

When La (the formal-singular "you" clitic, capitalized) precedes a vowel-initial verb, it elides to L' with the capital letter retained — this is the convention in careful or polite writing. In informal contexts the capital is often dropped.

The choice of participle agreement when L' = formal La addressing a male is debated; see the overview page for the L'avevo riconosciuto/riconosciuta discussion. In practice, the feminine agreement (matching the grammatical form La) is more common in formal correspondence; the masculine (matching the real-world referent) is also seen and not strictly wrong.

The same elision in attached forms

When lo or la attaches to an infinitive, gerundio, or affirmative imperative (Rules 2 and 3 of clitic placement), there is no elision — the attached form is vederlo, vederla, vedendolo, vedendola, vedilo, vedila. Elision is a phenomenon of preposed clitics meeting a vowel-initial verb; in enclitic position, the clitic just gets stuck on the end of the previous word.

So elision is, in everyday terms, the proclitic-position rule: when the clitic is in front of the verb, and the verb starts with a vowel, lo and la shrink to l'.

Tense-by-tense: where l'ho and l'ha appear

The most frequent triggers for elision are the forms of avere used as auxiliary, plus all the present and other tenses that begin with a vowel. Here is a sampling of compound tenses, all with the masculine clitic lo + a vowel-initial auxiliary:

The same forms with la differ only in the participle ending:

• L'ho vista — I saw her
• L'avevo vista — I had seen her
• L'avrei vista — I would have seen her
• Che l'abbia vista — that I (have) saw her

And in the simple tenses (no compound), elision happens whenever the verb itself starts with a vowel:

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

The elision rule for direct-object clitics is small but indispensable:

1. Lo and la elide to l' before a vowel (including silent-h forms of avere): l'ho visto, l'ho vista, l'aspetto, l'apre, l'avrebbe fatto. This is mandatory in writing.

2. The elided form l' is gender-ambiguous in writing — the same letters represent both masculine lo and feminine la. The past participle carries the gender information: l'ho visto (m.) vs. l'ho vista (f.).

3. Li and le do NOT elide. Plural clitics stay separate: li ho visti, le ho viste. This preserves the singular/plural contrast that l' would otherwise erase.

4. Mi, ti, ci, vi do not normally elide in modern standard Italian. Mi ha chiamato, not m'ha chiamato (except in song lyrics, poetry, or informal texts).

5. Ne does not elide. Ne ho due, never n'ho due in standard usage. This is one of the most common errors.

Once you have these reflexes, the most frequent orthographic patterns of Italian — l'ho fatto, l'ho detto, l'ho visto, l'ho capita, l'avrei chiamato — start producing themselves automatically. For the past-participle agreement that pairs with elision, see participle agreement in compound tenses; for everything else about clitic placement, return to the placement page.