delle

Delle is the contracted form of the Italian preposition di combined with the feminine plural definite article le. It is used before feminine plural nouns and serves two related functions in Italian: to indicate possession or origin (the equivalent of “of the” or “of”) and to express a partitive sense (“some” or “a few”). The meaning is determined by context.

Form and usage: Delle appears whenever a feminine plural noun follows the preposition di with the definite article le: di + le = delle. Examples: Ho comprato delle mele. (I bought some apples.) La casa delle ragazze è grande. (The house of the girls / The girls’ house.) In the first example, delle functions as a partitive meaning “some.” In the second, it marks possession or association.

Contrast with other di- contractions: del (masculine singular, di + il), della (feminine singular, di + la), dei (masculine plural, di + i), degli (masculine plural before certain consonant clusters or with some nouns), delle (feminine plural). Note that dell’ is used for di + l’ before singular nouns starting with a vowel, not for feminine plural.

Common pitfalls: Delle is specifically feminine plural, so it never appears before masculine nouns or before feminine singular nouns. Context, article usage, and accompanying adjectives help determine whether it means “some” or “of the.” In standard Italian, delle is a versatile form that combines quantity, possession, and relation with feminine plural nouns.