Elision and the Apostrophe

Elision is the dropping of a final unstressed vowel before a word that begins with a vowel. When it happens, Italian writes an apostrophe (') in place of the dropped vowel: lo amico becomes l'amico, una amica becomes un'amica, dove è becomes dov'è. The two words are still pronounced as a clean sequence — no pause between them — but the spelling makes the loss of the vowel visible.

Italian elision is partial and selective, not automatic the way French elision is. L'amico is mandatory; de amico stays di un amico without elision; ho avuto keeps its hiatus and is not normally written h'avuto. Which words elide and which don't is a matter of grammar and lexical convention — there is no across-the-board rule that says "any vowel before any vowel disappears." This page covers which words elide, when they must, when they may, when they must not, and the famous un/un' rule that is the single most-tested elision point in Italian.

1. What elision actually is

Elision is a phonological process: when one word ends in an unstressed vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, the languages of the world routinely "fuse" the two — the first vowel either drops or merges into the second. This avoids a small awkward pause (a hiatus) at the word boundary.

Italian writes the dropped vowel as an apostrophe only in cases where the elision is conventional and grammaticalized. In casual or quick speech, you'll hear plenty of additional elision that isn't written — ho avuto may sound like h'avuto, but the standard spelling keeps both words full.

The apostrophe is immediately followed by the next word, with no space. L'amico, never l' amico. Un'altra, never un' altra. This is a strict orthographic rule, and word processors that auto-add a space after an apostrophe will produce wrong-looking Italian.

2. The mandatory elisions: definite articles

The clearest case of mandatory written elision is the definite articles lo and la before a vowel-initial noun.

A consequence of this rule: in writing, the masculine and feminine singular definite articles collapse to the same form before a vowel: l'amico (m.) and l'amica (f.) both start with l'. You can usually tell which from the noun's gender, but in some cases the article alone is ambiguous. Italian generally cares more about pronunciation flow than about preserving a visible gender distinction in the article.

Plural articles: NO elision

The masculine plural gli and the feminine plural le do not elide before vowels in modern standard Italian.

In old or literary texts you may see gl'amici with elision, but this is archaic and not used in modern writing. Stick with gli amici and le amiche.

3. The famous un/un' rule for indefinite articles

The indefinite articles in Italian are un (masculine) and una (feminine). Their behavior before vowel-initial nouns is the single most-tested point of Italian elision, because it produces a meaningful distinction in writing that has no audible counterpart.

The reason: masculine un already ends in a consonant. There is no vowel to elide. Un + amico simply stays as un amico, two words separated by a space, no apostrophe. Adding an apostrophe (un'amico) would imply that some vowel had been dropped — but no vowel ever existed.

The feminine una, by contrast, does end in a vowel. The -a drops before a vowel-initial noun, and the apostrophe records the drop: una + amica → un'amica. The apostrophe is mandatory; the form una amica is unidiomatic in writing.

This distinction is purely orthographic. Spoken Italian pronounces un amico and un'amica identically — both are /uˈnamiko/ or /uˈnamika/ — so the apostrophe is the only signal in writing of whether the noun is masculine or feminine. Native speakers monitor this carefully; getting it wrong is a clear marker of non-native or careless writing.

4. Demonstratives and determiners that elide

Several determiners follow the same elision pattern as the definite article. The pattern is most consistent with feminine forms; the masculine forms have additional complexities.

questo / questa / quello / quella

The masculine quello additionally has the special distributed forms quel, quello, quei, quegli that operate like the definite article paradigm; before vowels, quel and quegli may further reduce to quell' and quegl'. The feminine quella and plural quelle simply elide their final vowel: quell'amica, quell'idea, quelle amiche (no elision in plural — same as articles).

bello, santo, grande before vowels

These adjectives have shortened forms that mimic the article system. Before a vowel-initial noun, they elide:

The case of Sant'Antonio is special because Italian has a fixed convention for saints' names: San before consonants (San Marco, San Giuseppe), Sant' with apostrophe before vowels (Sant'Antonio, Sant'Agnese), Santo before s+consonant or z (Santo Stefano).

5. Common short adverbs and verbs that elide

A handful of high-frequency words have established elided forms:

ci before è/era, etc. → c'

The form c'è is the present singular form of "there is"; the plural ci sono doesn't elide because ci is followed by a consonant.

dove before è/era → dov'

come before è → com'

lo, la (object pronouns) before ho/hai/ha/abbiamo/avete/hanno

When the direct object pronouns lo (it, m.) and la (it, f.) precede a form of avere, they elide:

The elision here is consistent across genders — both lo and la become l' before forms of avere. To know whether l'ho visto refers to a masculine or feminine direct object, you have to look at the past participle agreement (visto vs vista) — see Direct Object Pronouns for the full system.

The plural pronouns li (them, m.) and le (them, f.) do not elide in modern standard Italian: Li ho visti, Le ho viste, never l'ho visti.

mi, ti, si, ci, vi — usually do NOT elide before vowels

In modern standard Italian, the reflexive and indirect object pronouns mi, ti, si, ci, vi do not elide. They keep their final vowel even before a vowel-initial verb.

In older literature and poetry you'll see m'ha, t'ho, s'è, c'ha, but these are archaic or stylistically marked in modern writing. Don't write them in normal prose.

6. Words that look like they should elide, but don't

The trickiest part of Italian elision is the selective nature of it. Several words and patterns that seem like they should elide actually don't, and the reverse is also true.

The preposition di before vowels

The preposition di (of, from) does not regularly elide in modern standard Italian, even though it ends in a vowel and is constantly followed by vowel-initial nouns. Di amici and di Italia are normal and correct.

The exception: in set phrases and lexicalized expressions, di does elide:

So di amico is normal, but un anello d'oro is the standard phrase. The difference is set by lexical convention — there is no productive rule. When in doubt, leave di unelided.

The preposition da

Da (from, by, at) does not elide in modern standard Italian, even before vowels.

You'll see d'amore and d'estate in older texts and lyrics, but these are stylistic and increasingly rare in everyday writing.

The negation non

Non before a vowel does not elide. Non ho stays non ho, never n'ho.

7. Italian elision compared to French and Spanish

Italian is less aggressive in its written elision than French, but more aggressive than Spanish.

• French elision is automatic: any vowel-final monosyllable elides before a vowel — je → j', le → l', de → d', ne → n', que → qu', si → s'. The system is fully grammaticalized and applies in every register.
• Italian elision is partial: only certain words elide, and only some of them in writing. Lo amico must become l'amico; di amico normally stays unelided. The rules are lexical, not phonological.
• Spanish has almost no written elision: even de el doesn't get an apostrophe (it contracts as del, written as one word with no apostrophe). Spanish writes la amiga, de Italia, si amas with no spelling change at all.

For an English speaker who has studied French, the temptation will be to elide too aggressively in Italian (writing m'ha, d'amico, t'ascolto). For a Spanish speaker, the temptation will be the opposite — to write everything in full and forget that Italian does require l'amico and un'amica.

8. Apostrophe vs accent vs nothing

Italian has three different marks that learners sometimes confuse, and it's worth seeing them side by side:

The apostrophe and the accent are visually different (apostrophe is at the top right of the letter; accent is on top of the letter). They serve completely different functions and are never interchangeable. Common errors involve substituting one for the other (pò with accent for po' with apostrophe, qual'è with apostrophe for qual è with nothing).

9. Apocope vs elision: a quick distinction

Italian has two related processes that both involve dropping letters:

• Elision drops a vowel before another vowel, and the apostrophe records the loss: l'amico, un'amica, dov'è. Without the following vowel, no elision happens.
• Apocope (apocopation) drops a final unstressed vowel or syllable regardless of what follows, and is also marked with an apostrophe: po' (from poco), mo' (from modo, in "un mo'"), be' (from bene).

The forms un (from uno), qual (from quale), San (from Santo) are also apocopated, but they're written without an apostrophe because the apocope is fully lexicalized and the form is treated as a separate word.

The distinction matters for qual in particular: it is apocopated, not elided, so no apostrophe is written. Qual è is correct; qual'è is wrong.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Elision drops a final unstressed vowel before a vowel-initial word, written with an apostrophe: l'amico, un'amica, dov'è.
• The un/un' rule is the most-tested point: masculine un takes NO apostrophe before a vowel (un amico); feminine una takes an apostrophe (un'amica). This is the only signal in writing of the noun's gender when the article is followed by a vowel.
• The definite articles lo and la always elide before a vowel: l'amico, l'amica. The plural articles gli and le do not elide in modern Italian.
• Demonstratives questo/questa/quello/quella elide their final vowel: quest'amico, quell'idea.
• Adjectives bello, santo, grande elide in their masculine singular pre-vocalic forms: bell'uomo, Sant'Antonio, grand'uomo.
• Common short forms: c'è (ci + è), dov'è (dove + è), com'è (come + è), l'ho visto (lo + ho visto).
• Italian elision is selective — many words that look elidable do not elide in writing (mi, ti, ci, vi, non, di, da). When in doubt, leave words unelided.
• The apostrophe is not the same as an accent. Po' (apostrophe, truncation of poco) is correct; pò (accent) is wrong. Qual è (no mark) is correct; qual'è (apostrophe) is wrong.

For accent marks (a different mark with a different role), see Accent Marks. For the indefinite article system, see Indefinite Article Forms. For the apostrophe in spelling more broadly, see The Apostrophe in Italian.