L’articolo partitivo

Partitive article
A partitive represents a part of a whole. In Italian, the partitive meaning is conveyed by using the contraction created by combining the preposition di and the definite articles.

As you already know (see Unità 6 and 7), the genitive is formed the same way. In other words, a genitive looks like a partitive article, but it is something really different from a grammatical point of view.

La casa della mia amica è bella “My friend’s house is beautiful” (genitive)
Voglio dell’ acqua. I want some water (partitive)

The partitive article is used, when we talk about a part of something or about some elements of a group with similar elements. In English, we usually convey this thought with words like some, any or a few.

Here are a few examples of these in use:

Posso avere dell’acqua. (di + l’ [acqua]) I want some water.
Hai delle monete. (di + le [monete]) Do you have any coins?
Ci sono dei libri nel mio zaino. (di + i [libri]) There are a few books in my backpack.

A distinction is usually made between the use of the singular and plural. The partitive singular indicates an unspecified amount of an item considered non-countable (Voglio del gelato ‘I want some gelato’, Posso avere dello zucchero? ‘May I have some sugar?’). In the plural, however, the partitive indicates an undetermined quantity of a countable element (Compro dei fiori ‘I buy some flowers’, Mangio degli spaghetti ‘I eat some spaghetti’, Hai delle domande? ‘Do you have any questions?’).

• Look at the images 1,3,4,7 above. Pretend you are the subject of the actions presented. Create 4 sentences both orally and in writing. Then check if there are mistakes in your spoken Italian using Speech to Text and in your text using Spell and Grammar Checker.
• Repeat the partitive articles and use Speech to Text to check if the computer recognizes your pronunciation.