Gender and Number of Italian Nouns

In Italian, every noun has a gender (masculine or feminine) and a number (singular or plural).

• Masculine nouns usually end in -o (singular) → -i (plural).es. libro → libri
• Feminine nouns usually end in -a (singular) → -e (plural).es. casa → case
• Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine. Their plural ends in -i.es. stazione (f.) → stazioni; esame (m.) → esami
• Some nouns are irregular and do not follow the standard rules.

Learning the gender and number of nouns is very important because it also affects articles (il, la, i, le) and adjectives(bello, bella, belli, belle) that go with them.

In the exercises below, you will practise:

1. Recognising if a noun is masculine or feminine.
2. Forming the correct plural of singular nouns.
3. Using gender and number consistently.

Practise

Choose the correct gender