L-Artiklu (The Article)

The Article is used to define or determine a noun or an adjective.

It is formed by adding -l or -il to the beginning of a noun or an adjective.
(always linked by a hyphen to the following noun or an adjective)

        the family          -          il-familja   
                       
The article  -il  is the definite article, equivalent to "the" in English.
and it becomes -l if the word after the article starts with a vowel 

and also when the word after the articleends with a vowel (a, e, i, ie, o, u)
This also applies to the consonants "għ" and "h".

The vowel -i of -il is called
"il vokali tal-leħen" (euphonic vowel)
and it is eliminated
when the word after the article starts with a vowel,
or with "għ" or "h",
or if the word preceding the article ends with a vowel.
  l-omm (the mother)
 l-għasfur (the bird)
       l-hena (the happiness)
l-ħelu (the candy)


In the Maltese alphabet there are two types of consonants.

There is 15 moon consonants -
QAMRIN KONSONANTI:
b, f, ġ, g, għ, h, ħ, j, k ,l, m, p, q, v, w
and 9 sun consonants - XEMXIN KONSONANTI:
ċ, d, n, r, s, t, x, ż, z

* The Moon Consonants take only -il :
il-baħar (the sea)
il-ġurdien (the mouse)
il-papri (the ducks)
il-qamar (the moon)
il-farfett  (the butterfly)
il-ballun (the ball)

* If the word starts with the sun consonant,
the article -il or -l changes
to match the first consonant of the word:
iċ-ċurkett (the ring)
id-dar (the house)
in-nar (the fire)
ir-ragel (the man)
is-siġġu (the chair)
it-tiġieġa (the chicken)
ix-xemx (the sun)
iż-żiemel (the horse)
iz-zunnarija (the carrot)

Words beginning with two consonants where the first one is:
m, n, r, s, x, take -i in front of the word:

           skola         ->      l-iskola (the school)
                  mwejed          ->      l-imwejed (the shoemaker)
       nbid          ->     l-inbid (the wine)
        rdumm       ->     l-irdumm (the cliff)
              xkupa      ->     l-ixkupa (the broom)