The Apostrophe in Elisions

The apostrophe (') is the most-tested orthographic mark in Italian education. It looks innocuous, but a single missing or misplaced apostrophe is a real spelling error: un'amica (a female friend) and un amica (ungrammatical) are not the same, and Italians treat the difference as the kind of thing native speakers should never get wrong. The apostrophe also distinguishes meaningful pairs of words — po' (a little) from po (incomplete) from pò (wrong spelling) — and it does the work of marking gender in writing where speech makes no audible difference.

This page covers what to write: when the apostrophe goes in, when it stays out, and the small set of traps every Italian schoolchild learns and every learner has to master. For the underlying phonology — why Italian elides lo before amico — see Elision and the Apostrophe. Here, the focus is the writing convention.

1. What the apostrophe is for

The apostrophe in Italian marks two related processes:

1. Elision: a final unstressed vowel is dropped before a vowel-initial word. The apostrophe replaces the dropped vowel. Examples: lo amico → l'amico, una amica → un'amica, dove è → dov'è.
2. Apocope: a final letter or syllable is truncated, regardless of what follows. The apostrophe replaces the dropped letters. Examples: poco → po', dire (imperative) → di'.

In both cases, the apostrophe attaches directly to the next character with no space — l'amico, never l' amico. Word processors that auto-add a space after the apostrophe will produce wrong-looking Italian. Native readers immediately spot the wrong spacing.

2. The definite articles — mandatory elision

The masculine and feminine singular definite articles always elide before a vowel-initial noun. Lo (used before special consonant clusters and vowels) and la both reduce to l'.

A consequence of this rule: in writing, the masculine and feminine articles collapse to the same form before a vowel: l'amico (m.) and l'amica (f.) both start with l'. Italian generally cares more about pronunciation flow than about preserving a visible gender distinction in the article — the gender is recoverable from the noun ending.

Plural articles: NO elision

The plural articles gli (m.) and le (f.) do not elide in modern standard Italian. Even before vowels, you write them in full.

Old or literary texts may use gl'amici with elision, but this is archaic and not used in modern writing. Stick with the unelided forms.

Prepositions + article (preposizioni articolate)

When a, di, da, in, su, con combine with the definite article, the result fuses into a single word (al, alla, dello, della, nel, nella, sul, sulla, etc.). When the article is l', the preposition fuses with that elided form: all'amico, dell'amica, sull'isola.

3. The famous un / un' rule

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

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, so the apostrophe is grammatically wrong.

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/, with no audible pause or break — 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.

A useful drill: take any noun starting with a vowel and ask yourself the gender, then write the article. Albero (m.) → un albero, no apostrophe. Estate (f.) → un'estate, apostrophe. Aereo (m.) → un aereo. Università (f.) → un'università. The apostrophe is doing exactly the work that a / an does in English — but here it carries gender, not just phonology.

4. Demonstratives: questo, quello

The demonstratives questo, questa, quello, quella elide their final vowel before a vowel-initial noun.

The elision is the same for masculine and feminine in the singular forms (quest'amico and quest'amica both write quest'); plurals never elide. This is the same pattern as the definite articles — singular elide, plural don't.

5. Adjectives that elide before vowels: bello, santo, grande

A small set of adjectives have shortened forms before vowel-initial nouns. They mimic the article system in their behavior.

bello (beautiful, great, handsome)

Bello before a vowel becomes bell': bell'uomo, bell'amico, bell'idea. The form is parallel to quel/quello/quell'.

The plural forms (belli, belle) and the regular pre-consonant forms (bel libro, bei libri) do not elide — only the singular pre-vocalic forms.

santo (saint), santa (saint, f.)

Santo and santa elide to Sant' before vowel-initial saint names. This is a fixed convention specifically for saints.

The masculine before consonants is San (without apostrophe — it's an apocopated form of santo, fully lexicalized as a separate word). Only before vowels does the form become Sant' with an apostrophe. The feminine Sant' with apostrophe applies to feminine saints' names too (Sant'Agnese, Sant'Anna, Sant'Elena).

grande (big, great)

Grande sometimes elides to grand' before a vowel-initial noun, especially in slightly elevated style:

In modern everyday Italian, the unelided form grande is increasingly common before any noun, including vowel-initial ones. The elided grand' survives mostly in fixed expressions and slightly literary contexts.

6. Common short forms: c'è, dov'è, com'è, l'ho

Several high-frequency words have established elided forms in writing.

ci + è/era → c'

dove + è/era → dov'

come + è → com'

Object pronouns lo, la + 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 to l':

The elision is consistent across genders — both lo and la become l' before forms of avere. To know the gender of the direct object, look at the past participle agreement (visto vs vista).

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

7. Apocopated forms with apostrophe: po', va', di', fa', sta', da'

Italian has a small set of words that have been truncated rather than elided — they have lost a final letter or syllable, and the apostrophe records the truncation. These are not elision (no vowel met another vowel and disappeared); they are apocope, a separate phenomenon, but they use the same orthographic mark.

These imperatives only take the apocopated form in the tu (informal singular) imperative; the polite Lei form is vada, faccia, dia, dica, stia, and the plural voi is andate, fate, date, dite, state.

The famous po' trap: apostrophe, NOT accent

The single most-cited spelling error in Italian writing is pò with a grave accent for po' with an apostrophe. The form po' is an apocopation of poco — the final -co has been dropped, and the apostrophe records the truncation. It is not pò with a grave accent: an accent would mark final-syllable stress and open vowel quality, not truncation.

8. The famous qual è trap: NO apostrophe

Another famous error: the question phrase qual è ("what is...?", "which is...?") is written without an apostrophe, even though qual ends in a consonant cluster that looks like it should be elided. The form qual is an apocopation of quale (a fully lexicalized truncation), not an elision before a vowel. Apocopation that has produced a stable separate form does not take the apostrophe.

This is one of three famous traps that Italian schoolchildren learn explicitly: perché (acute accent, never perchè with grave), po' (apostrophe, never pò with accent), qual è (no mark, never qual'è with apostrophe). Get these three right and you've handled the most-tested orthographic points in Italian.

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

Italian elision is selective, not automatic. Several words and patterns that seem like they should elide actually don't.

Object pronouns mi, ti, si, ci, vi — usually no elision

In modern standard Italian, the reflexive and indirect object pronouns mi, ti, si, ci, vi do not elide before vowels. They keep their full form.

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

Prepositions di, da, a, in — selective elision

The preposition di (of, from) elides freely before vowel-initial words in many fixed and semi-fixed contexts (d'accordo, d'altra parte, d'oro, d'acqua, d'inverno), but speakers vary in how productively they elide it elsewhere. The preposition da (from, by, at) elides much more rarely — d'altronde is fixed, but a phrase like vengo dall'Italia (with the article) is preferred over any attempt to elide da itself.

The most reliably elided forms are lexicalized expressions: d'accordo (in agreement), d'altra parte (on the other hand), d'altronde (moreover), d'oro (of gold). These are fixed; you don't generate new elisions of da or a productively in modern prose.

The negation non — never elides

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

10. Apostrophe vs accent — they are different marks

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: the apostrophe sits at the top right of the previous letter, between two letters; the accent sits directly on top of the vowel. 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).

For accent marks, see Written Accent Marks.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• The apostrophe marks elision (vowel dropped before vowel: l'amico, un'amica, dov'è) or apocope (final letters dropped: po', va', Sant'Antonio).
• The single most-tested rule: masculine un takes NO apostrophe before a vowel (un amico); feminine una takes one (un'amica). This is the only signal in writing of the noun's gender.
• Definite articles lo and la always elide to l' before a vowel; the plural 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 before vowels (bell'uomo, Sant'Antonio, grand'uomo).
• Apocopated forms with apostrophe: po' (poco), va', fa', di', da', sta' (imperatives), be' (bene), mo' (modo).
• Three famous traps taught in Italian schools: perché (acute, not perchè); po' (apostrophe, not pò); qual è (nothing, not qual'è).
• The apostrophe is not an accent: they are different marks with different functions and are never interchangeable.
• Italian elision is selective — many words don't elide (mi, ti, ci, vi, non, di, da). When in doubt, don't elide.

For accent marks, see Written Accent Marks. For pronunciation of elision, see Elision and the Apostrophe. For the article system, see Indefinite Article Forms and Definite Article Forms.