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I have read the following sentence in a Italian learning tool:
Loro sono dei poliziotti statali.
"They are some state police officers" is not usual in English in this neutral context, so I'd rather translate that sentence to "They are state police officers". So, I wonder: what is the difference between the above sentence and "Loro sono poliziotti statali" ?
Speaking about the use of articles in Italian, in his book Grammatica dell'italiano adulto, Vittorio Coletti explains that the so called "articolo partitivo" ("dei", "degli" or "delle") is used to make the plural of an indeterminative article, but that such a plural is also frequently expressed by simply omitting the article:
L'articolo partitivo funge anche da plurale dell'indeterminativo, quando il plurale è ammissibile, ovviamente: «voglio una torta» e «voglio delle torte». Un plurale indeterminato è spesso dato anche solo dall'assenza di articolo; la frase «ci sono studenti» è uguale a «ci sono degli studenti» ed entrambe sono diverse da «ci sono gli studenti».
So, as in the example given by Coletti («ci sono studenti» is the same as «ci sono degli studenti»), both the sentences «sono poliziotti» and «sono dei poliziotti» are correct and mean the same.
To express someone's profession, you would usually say:
{subject} {to be} {profession}
example: Io sono professore di italiano.
To express the profession or quality of an unnumbered subset of people in a numbered group of people you would usually say:
{subject (subset of a bigger group)} {to be} {articolo partitivo} {profession/quality/characteristic}
The same form can be used to express a quality:
{subject} {to be} {articolo partitivo} {profession/quality/characteristic}
example: Puoi fidarti di Luca e Paolo, sono dei bravi ragazzi.
An "articolo partitivo" is the combination of the preposition "di" and a definite article. It is used to express an undetermined quantity of something in a group. You can also find it used as the plural form of the indeterminate article it is composed of.
In your example, if the intention was to express the profession of the subject "loro", loro sono poliziotti is the correct form. Still, you can hear loro sono dei poliziotti used to express a profession.
loro sono dei poliziotti would be correct if dei was actually used as a partitivo, to indicate that "some guys in a counted group of people" are poliziotti.
