Nouns

 Italian nouns are either masculine (male) or feminine (female) (this is called their gender). The word you use for "the" is il before most masculine nouns beginning with "z" or "s" plus another consonant, la before feminine nouns and l' before all nouns beginning with a vowel:

il cappello                           the hat

la gonna                             the skirt

l'impermeabile (male)          the raincoat

lo studente                        the student

 Most nouns ending in "o" are masculine and most of those ending in "a" are feminine. Nouns ending in "e" may be masculine or feminine:

 la chiave                            the key

il fiore                                the flower

 Some nouns have a masculine and a feminine form. These are often nouns which descibe what people are or what they do: 

l'amico (male)                     the (male) friend

l'amica (female)                   the (female) friend

lo studente                         the (male) student                                

 la studentessa                    the (female) student

il turista                              the (male) tourist

la turista                             the (female) tourist