The definite article differs whether or not it is followed by a vowel or consonant. Words beginning with a consonant take the definite articles shown in the table. While words starting with a vowel take "l" or ll" as the article regardless of gender. The "l" mirrors the Italian article used before vowels, but the "ll" is not used in Italian. Ll' is much more common in Neapolitan. The lack of distinction between articles used for different genders can make knowing the gender of words particularly challenging.