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Sostantivi femminili e plurali
Like English nouns, most Italian nouns have singular and plural forms. In addition, Italian nouns referring to people and animals often have different masculine and feminine forms, which means that these nouns can have up to four forms:
| masculine singular | masculine plural |
| feminine singular | feminine plural |
Feminine and/or plural endings are applied to the default masculine singular form. For most masculine nouns that end in –o, these endings are -a for feminine, –i for masculine plural, and –e for feminine plural.
Per esempio…
| grandfather(s) | il nonno | i nonni | ||
| grandmother(s) | la nonna | le nonne |
Nouns referring to professions or titles end in –o, –a, or –e in the masculine, and these usually change to –essa in the feminine. The plurals are –i and –esse, respectively
il dotorre (doctor)
| il dottore | i dottori | |
| la dottoressa | le dottoresse |
Exceptions
- (teacher) il maestro, la maestra, i maestri, le maestre
- (waiter, waitress) il cameriere, la cameriera, i camerieri, le cameriere
Some nouns that end in –tore change to –trice in the feminine. The final –e changes to –i for both plurals.
lo scrittore (writer)
| lo scrittore | gli scrittori | |
| la scrittrice | le scrittrici |
Nouns that end in –ga or –ista can be masculine or feminine. The plurals end in –i and –e, respectively.
un autista (driver)
| un autista | degli autisti | |
| un’autista | delle autiste |
A few nouns have completely different masculine and feminine equivalents.
Per esempio…
| un uomo man |
una donna woman |
|
| un toro bull |
una mucca cow |
Related lessons
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