Do not trust anything you read on this page!

I'm learning Italian using Duolingo. This teaches by providing lots of examples and never explaining anything, so I'm having to figure it out as I go along. I'm recording my thoughts on the way that Italian works here, but there are sure to be things I've got wrong and lots of exceptions I haven't encountered.

The Alphabet

Italian does not seem to include the following letters:

j k w y

Examples of words with all the other letters: ape burro casa due e finche gatto ho io la mi noi o papa questo ragazzo su ti uva voi x? zoo

Word Endings

Italian words, with very few exceptions, end in a vowel. Exceptions I've encountered:

non per

• Nouns ending in -o are masculine and form their plural by changing the ending to -i.
• Nouns ending in -a are feminine and form their plural by changing the ending to -e.
• Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine. The plural ends in -i. La chiave the key, le chiavi the keys (feminine).
• Nouns do not end in -u.

Exceptions: uomo man, uomini men.

Definite Articles

The definite article, which is "the" in English, has lots of different formsL

Italian uses the definite article more often than English: with my, your, his etc; when specifying food - I like the chocolate, He drinks the coffee etc.

Indefinite Article