Please, make sure that you read our Forum Guidelines.
You can use any username that you like when you join duome forum, yet it's better if you use your existing Duolingo username to unlock some extra features and avoid confusion while troubleshooting; in any case it's advised that you choose a different password for the forum.
~ Duome Team
Moderator: Linda7Italian
Duo does not explain this. How does one know whether to use il or lo, un or uno? (or is it just remembering). I had assumed the was just male (il) or female (la) like french. I then thought the lo/uno was for words ending in "o" like zaino (backpack) but it is il negozzio (store).
Anyone able to point me in right direction?
MoniqueMaRie
I was hoping to find an answer exactly in this post.
But as it was not here I first had to find it:
viewtopic.php?p=7026-archived-italian-f ... t=Lo#p7026
The following is an excerpt from this embedded link
https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-defin ... es-4055936
Masculine nouns do NOT get the articles il and i but rather lo and gli when they begin with a vowel. For example, the noun albero, or tree, is masculine and it begins with a vowel; its article is lo; in the plural, alberi, its article is gli. Same for the following:
L(o)' uccello, gli uccelli: the bird, the birds
L(o)' animale, gli animali: the animal, the animals
L(o)' occhio, gli occhi: the eyes, the eyes
...
Also, masculine nouns take the articles lo and gli when they begin with the following:
s plus a consonant
ps and pn
gn
x, y, and z
Native 
/ using 
/ learning 
/ once learnt 
/ trying to understand at least a bit 
Linda7Italian
@Steve0353 It gets easier the more you learn
. Really helpful answer @MoniqueMaRie, it's good to be reminded as to the "why's" in grammar.
