Understanding Italian Nouns

Nouns are one of the most important parts of the Italian language. This guide will help you learn everything about them, from gender to plural forms.

Gender of Italian Nouns

In Italian, all nouns have a gender: they are either masculine or feminine. This might seem strange to an English speaker, but Italian people perceive some words as "male" and others as "female."

It's crucial to know the gender of a noun because it directly affects how you use adjectives and pronouns with it. For instance:

Notice how both the article ("il" vs. "la") and the adjective ("simpatico" vs. "simpatica") change to match the noun's gender.

Luckily, there are general rules that can help you identify the gender by looking at the last letter:

Masculine nouns generally end with -o

Ragazzo
Boy
Uomo
Man
Gatto
Cat
Libro
Book

Feminine nouns generally end with -a

Ragazza
Girl
Donna
Woman
Casa
House
Macchina
Car

Nouns Ending in -e

Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine. There's no simple rule based on the ending alone, so you often need to learn their gender by heart.

Masculine -e nouns:

Cane
Dog
Pane
Bread
Mare
Sea
Pesce
Fish

Feminine -e nouns:

Luce
Light
Ape
Bee
Chiave
Key
Canzone
Song

Here are some common patterns that can give you hints for the gender of -e ending nouns:

• Nouns ending in -ione are generally feminine: Stazione, Destinazione, Passione
• Nouns ending in -udine are generally feminine: Abitudine
• Nouns ending in -ie are generally feminine: Moglie, Serie, Specie
• Nouns ending in -ore are generally masculine: Fiore, Onore

Irregular Nouns

Some nouns don't follow the typical rules. For example, you might find masculine nouns ending in -a or feminine nouns ending in -o. These are rare and will usually be noted when you learn them.

Foreign Nouns

When foreign words are adopted into Italian, their gender is often assigned based on usage or analogy. Here are a few common examples:

• Mail – feminine
• Password – feminine
• Wifi – masculine
• Computer – masculine

Forming the Plural

To make nouns plural, you generally change their ending. The specific change depends on the noun's singular ending and gender:

Masculine -o nouns change to -i

Ragazzo → Ragazzi
Gatto → Gatti
Libro → Libri
Problema → Problemi (Note: this is an irregular masculine noun ending in -a)
Turista → Turisti (Note: this is an irregular masculine noun ending in -a)

Feminine -a nouns change to -e

Ragazza → Ragazze
Donna → Donne
Casa → Case
Macchina → Macchine

Nouns ending in -e change to -i

Cane → Cani
Pesce → Pesci
Giornale → Giornali
Ape → Api
Canzone → Canzoni

Words that don’t change in the plural

Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural. These often include words ending in an accented vowel, foreign loanwords, and abbreviated nouns:

Re → Re (King/Kings)
Città → Città (City/Cities)
Caffè → Caffè (Coffee/Coffees)
Tè → Tè (Tea/Teas)
Università → Università (University/Universities)
Bar → Bar (Bar/Bars)
Autobus → Autobus (Bus/Buses)
Mail → Mail (Email/Emails)
Computer → Computer (Computer/Computers)
Password → Password (Password/Passwords)
Analisi → Analisi (Analysis/Analyses)
Crisi → Crisi (Crisis/Crises)
Auto → Auto (Car/Cars - abbreviated)
Moto → Moto (Motorcycle/Motorcycles - abbreviated)
Radio → Radio (Radio/Radios - abbreviated)
Foto → Foto (Photo/Photos - abbreviated)

Orthographic Changes in Plural

Some nouns undergo slight spelling changes in the plural to maintain their original pronunciation:

Add "h" to keep a hard sound (for -ca, -ga):

When the singular noun ends in -ca (hard 'k' sound) or -ga (hard 'g' sound), an 'h' is added in the plural to preserve that hard pronunciation before the -e or -i ending.

Barca → Barche
Banca → Banche
Strega → Streghe
Tartaruga → Tartarughe

But note the exception: Amico → Amici (the 'c' sound changes from hard to soft here, not maintaining the hard sound)

Cia/Gia after a consonant drop the 'i':

If a noun ends in -cia or -gia and the 'c' or 'g' is preceded by a consonant, the 'i' is dropped in the plural form.

Faccia → Facce
Goccia → Gocce
Guancia → Guance
Spiaggia → Spiagge

-io nouns drop -o in plural:

Nouns ending in -io typically lose the 'o' and simply take the plural 'i' ending.

Foglio → Fogli
Bacio → Baci
Coniglio → Conigli