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.
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