Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Normally, when you say you are "in" a country or continent, Italian uses the simple preposition *in* without an article (e.g., *in Italia*, *in Europa*). However, as soon as you add an adjective or specific detail to describe a region or era, **you must include the definite article**.

### Vowel-Starting Countries and Continents

Since many continents and countries start with a vowel, you will frequently combine *in* + *l'* to form **nell'**.

{{item:853291}}

{{item:853293}}

Adjectives like *settentrionale* (northern) and *meridionale* (southern) also trigger the use of the article.

{{item:853296}}

{{item:853309}}

### Consonant-Starting Countries

If the country starts with a consonant, use the articulated preposition based on its gender. For most countries, which are feminine, *in* + *la* becomes **nella**.

{{item:853303}}

{{item:853305}}

### Modified Countries as Subjects

Just like unmodified countries, modified countries always take a definite article when they are the subject of a sentence.

{{item:853311}}

{{item:853312}}

Articles with modified countries (nell'Italia meridionale)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
Europe	l'Europa
western	occidentale
We live in Western Europe.	Abitiamo nell'Europa occidentale.
eastern	orientale
In Eastern Europe, people drink a lot of tea.	Nell'Europa orientale si beve molto tè.
America	l'America
northern	settentrionale
I work in North America.	Lavoro nell'America settentrionale.
I would like to travel in South America.	Vorrei viaggiare nell'America meridionale.
Asia	l'Asia
The climate in Southern Asia is tropical.	Il clima nell'Asia meridionale è tropicale.
He has traveled a lot in East Asia.	Ha viaggiato molto nell'Asia orientale.
Greece	la Grecia
They found a temple in ancient Greece.	Hanno trovato un tempio nella Grecia antica.
We spent our vacation in Northern Greece.	Abbiamo trascorso la vacanza nella Grecia settentrionale.
flat	pianeggiante
The territory in Northern France is flat.	Il territorio nella Francia settentrionale è pianeggiante.
The number of tourists in Eastern Spain is increasing.	Il numero di turisti nella Spagna orientale va aumentando.
peninsula	la penisola
Many tourists arrive in the Italian peninsula.	Molti turisti arrivano nella penisola italiana.
In Southern Italy, summer is very long.	Nell'Italia meridionale l'estate è molto lunga.
mountainous	montuoso
Western America is very mountainous.	L'America occidentale è molto montuosa.
The peninsula is flat, but southern Greece is mountainous.	La penisola è pianeggiante, ma la Grecia meridionale è montuosa.