Italian Nouns: Gender and Number

Gender of nouns

In Italian, nouns can be masculine or feminine.

• Masculine nouns often end in -o.

  Example: libro (book), telefono (telephone), divano (sofa).

• Feminine nouns often end in -a.

  Example: casa (house), bottiglia (bottle).

Some nouns end in -e.

These can be masculine or feminine.

• Masculine: padre (father), cameriere (waiter), latte (milk).

• Feminine: madre (mother), stazione (station), televisione (television).

Some nouns ending in -e refer to people. In this case, the gender depends on the person.

• Carla è insegnante → feminine.

• Franco è insegnante → masculine.

Number of nouns

The number can be singular or plural.

• Masculine nouns ending in -o change to -i.

  Example: libro → libri (book → books).

• Feminine nouns ending in -a change to -e.

  Example: tazza → tazze (cup → cups).

• Nouns ending in -e, both masculine and feminine, change to -i.

  Example: cane → cani (dog → dogs), lavatrice → lavatrici (washing machine → washing machines).

 Special rules

• Foreign nouns are usually masculine and do not change in the plural.

  Example: bar → bar, sport → sport, computer → computer.

• Nouns with an accent do not change in the plural.

  Example: caffè → caffè, università → università, menù → menù.

• Some nouns ending in -ista can be masculine or feminine.

  In the plural they change differently:

  • masculine: dentista → dentisti

  • feminine: dentista → dentiste

   

Conclusion

In Italian, every noun has a gender and changes in the plural depending on its ending.

There are some exceptions, but with practice you will get used to them.