Nouns in Italian are divided into two genders
1. Masculine
2. Feminine
You may be wondering what a NOUN actually is.
A noun is an animate or inanimate object or living being.
In other words, a person (proper: names and common: the lady), place, plant, animal, thing:abstract (eg love) or concrete nouns (the pen, the paper)
As in many languages and systems in the world, there are the most common rules and then the exceptions to the rules. Where gender is concerned in Italian, there is 1 main rule and then a few exceptions as well which you can familiarise yourself with.
We will refer to 3 main groups here
GROUP 1 – 4 forms –
Masculine Singular Nouns end in -o Masculine Plural Nouns end in -i
Feminine Singular Nouns end in -a Feminine Plural Nouns end in -e
If a NOUN (person, place, animal, thing) ends in -o it is generally masculine
The gender assigned is sometimes random. eg. gelato is masculine
Some other masculine gender words you may already be familiar with
gelato gelati
cappuccino cappuccini
vino vini
concerto concerti
studio studi
antipasto antipasti
momento momenti
People
Mario
Antonio
Marco
Places
Lazio
Veneto
If a NOUN (person, place, animal, thing) ends in -a it is generally feminine
The gender assigned is sometimes random. eg. pizza is feminine
Some other feminine gender words you may already be familiar with
pasta
musica
opera
pergola
mozzarella
pizzeria
gelateria
Proper Nouns
People
Maria
Antonia
Sofia
Places
Roma
Venezia
GROUP 2 – 2 forms
GROUP 2 – These nouns end in ‘e’
90% of these nouns are masculine in gender
10% are feminine in gender
How can you tell the difference?
How can you tell which is which?
Here we learn to identify is by suffixes – the last syllable of the word
As we indicated earlier, 90% of these are masculine
So best learn the feminine suffixes and words off by heart as all the rest are masculine
Let’s see an example however to better remember this.
Common Masculine Suffixes include -ale -ore
– ale sale (salt) maiale (pig)
-ore motore (motor) dottore (doctor) orrore (horror) terrore (terror) dolore (pain)
Common Feminine Suffixes include -ave – asse -ione -otte
– ave chiave (key) nave (ship)
-otte notte (night) botte (wine barrel)
-ione nazione (nation) identificazione (identification) preparazione (preparation) stazione (station)
GROUP 3 – 1 form -invariable
with the exception of words of Greek origin
GROUP 3 – Everything else –
This includes
(a) Words that are abbreviated – the gender is determined by the original word not its abbreviation
fotografia – foto frigorifero -frigo cinematografo – cinema radiogramma -radio
(b) Words that end in an accented vowels – 99% end in à & are always feminine – ty becomes – tà
eg identità personalità curiosità probabilità prosperità pubblicità possibilità città abilità università Exception
Only a handful end in ù or ì & are masculine menù lunedì martedì mercoledì giovedì venerdì
(c) Words adopted from English include film whisky sport koala weekend stress shopping manager computer I Phone I Pad Internet
(d) Words from the Greek language a foreign language
If from Greek – 100% of these nouns are masculine in gender and end in -ma or -ta
il problema il sistema il programma il pianeta il poeta
In GROUP 3
None of the nouns in A B or C change – they are invariable – they have 1 form for the singular and plural.
The nouns in D however change in the plural – they are the exception in group 3.
- Nouns which end in -A are nearly always feminine; to make them plural change -A to -E: e.g.
pizza = pizza ; pizzas = pizze
Nouns which end in -O are nearly always masculine; to make them plural change -O to -I: e.g.
gelato = ice cream ; ice creams = gelati - Nouns which end in -E can be either masculine or feminine and you have to learn the gender when you learn the word; to make these nouns plural change -E to -I :e.g.
ristorante = restaurant ; restaurants = ristoranti
notte = night ; nights = notti
studente = student ; students = studenti - Most nouns in group 3 except those of Greek origin stay th same in the singular and plural.
The Greek ones end in i in the plural un problema BUT 2 problemi