LEARNING BASIC

ITALIAN
Ms. Cindy Ortiz Gaston-Villaroman
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• All Italian nouns are either masculine
or feminine.
• The best way to remember the
gender of a noun is to learn it along
with its definite article (i.e. the word
meaning ‘the’)
• Most nouns in the singular end in –o,
-a, or -e
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• Italian nouns ending in -o are usually
masculine
• l’uomo [m]
il fratello [m]
il pomeriggio [m]
il treno [m]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• Italian nouns ending in -a are usually
feminine:
• la donna [f]
la sorella [f]
la sera [f]
la bicicletta [f]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• Italian nouns ending in -e can be either
masculine or feminine. Unless a noun ending in
-e denotes a person whose gender is defined
(e.g. ‘husband’, ‘wife’)

Masculine Feminine
il padre La madre
il ristorante La notte
il sale La luce
il cognome La chiave
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• To help you to determine the gender of some
nouns ending in -e, here is a rule: nouns ending
in -sione or -zione are feminine:

la televisione [f]
la pensione [f]
la produzione [f]
la stazione [f]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• Some nouns ending in -a and referring to
persons are masculine when they refer to
a male and feminine when they refer to a
female
il/la collega [m/f]
l’atleta [m/f]
il/la batterista [m/f]
il/la pianista [m/f]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• There are some nouns ending in -a which
are masculine and some nouns ending in
-o which are feminine:
Masculine Feminine
il cinema L’auto
il papà La Foto
il problema La Mano
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• Foreign nouns, unless they refer to a
female, are generally masculine
il bar [m]
il rock [m]
l’hostess [f]
• Occasionally, the gender of a foreign noun is
the same as it is for the corresponding Italian
word:
la new wave is feminine, because onda (wave) is feminine.
la mail (e-mail message) is feminine, because posta (mail) is feminine.
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Gender: masculine and feminine
• The following rules can help in determining the gender of
nouns:
• All months of the year and days of the week are masculine,
apart from domenica (Sunday), which is feminine.
• All names of languages are masculine.
• Names of countries are normally feminine when they end in
-a and masculine when they end in any other letter:
la Francia [f]
la Spagna [f]
il Belgio [m]
il Paraguay [m]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Masculine nouns ending in -o, and all nouns ending in -e,
end in -i in the plural:

Singular Plural
il treno [m] i treni
il nome [m] I nomi
la notte [f]
le notti [f]
la stazione [f]
le stazioni [f]
la pensione [f]
le pensioni [f]
il/la parente [m/f]
i/le parenti [m/f]
la moglie [f]
le moglie [f]
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Nouns ending in -io have only one i in the plural. But if the -
i is stressed (-io), the plural has two (-ii):
Singular Plural
il bacio [m] i baci
il desiderio [m] i desideri
l’inizio [m] gli inizi
lo zio [m] gli zii
il mormorio [m] i mormorii
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Feminine nouns ending in -a take -e in the plural:

Singular Plural
la sorella [f] le sorelle
la lettera [f] le lettere
la sera [f] le sere
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Masculine nouns ending in -a take -i in the plura

Singular Plural
il problema [m] I problemi
il sistema [m] I sistemi
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• When a noun ending in -a denotes a person, its plural
ending depends on whether it is masculine or feminine. If it
refers to a male, the plural ends in -i; if it refers to a female,
the plural ends in -e
Singular Plural
il pianista [m] (male) pianist i pianisti [m] (male) pianists
la pianista [f] (female) pianist le pianiste [f] (female) pianists
il collega [m] (male) colleague i colleghi* [m] (male) colleagues
la collega [f] (female) colleague le colleghe* [f] (female) colleagues
UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Nouns ending in -ca or -ga always add h (-che or -ghe), in
order to keep the hard sound of c and g in the plural.

Singular Plural
l’amica [f] (female) friend le amiche (female) friends
la tasca [f] pocket le tasche pockets
la riga [f] line, ruler le righe lines, rulers
 UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Nouns ending in -co and -go normally add h (-chi or -ghi)
and keep the hard sound, but some nouns change the
sound of c and g in the plural (-ci or -gi).

Singular Plural
il gioco [m] game i giochi
il parco [m] park i parchi
il lago [m] lake i laghi
l’amico [m] (male) friend gli amici
il medico [m] doctor i medici
il biologo [m] biologist i biologi
 UNIT ONE
Nouns: gender and number
Number: singular and plural
• Nouns ending in -cia or -gia keep the i in the plural (-cie or
-gie) when the i is stressed, or when c or g is preceded by
a vowel. But if -cia or -gia is preceded by a consonant the i
is lost in the plural

Singular Plural
la farmacia [f] pharmacy le farmacie
la bugia [f] lie le bugie
la camicia [f] shirt/blouse le camicie
la ciliegia [f] cherry le ciliegie
l’arancia [f] orange le arance
la doccia [f] shower le docce
la spiaggia [f] beach le spiagge