Plural in Italian

In Italian all nouns have what is called gender...that means that they are either masculine or feminine. Most nouns that end in "o" are masculine and most nouns that end in "a" are feminine.

Examples of masculine words: treno, amico, panino

Examples of feminine words: amica, lira, studentessa

If a noun ends in "e" it can be either masculine or feminine and you must memorize the gender of the word.

Examples: The word caffè is masculine but the word notte is feminine.

Most nouns that end in a consonant are masculine such as film, sport

How to form the plural

If the word ends in "o" and you want to make it plural you change the "o" to "i"

treno means train but treni means trains.

If the word ends in "a" and you want to make it plural, you change the "a" to "e"

scuola means school but scuole means schools.

If the word ends in "e" and you want to make it plural, you change the "e" to "i"

ospedale means hospital but ospedali means hospitals.

Exceptions

If the word ends in "go" "ga" or "ca" the same rules apply. However you must insert the letter "h" before the final vowel.

targa (license plate) ----> targe ------> targhe (license plates)
amica (female friend) -------> amice -------> amiche (female friends)
albergo (hotel) --------> albergi --------> alberghi (hotels)

If the word ends in a consonant then leave it alone! The seplling is the same in both the singular and plural.

1 film = one film 2 film = two films

If the word ends in an accented letter then do not change it in the plural

1 caffè = one coffee but 2 caffè = 2 coffees.

Now you try to change these words to the plural

ragazzo ------>
cane -------->
chiesa ------->
amica ------->
computer ----------->
università ---------->
nonno ---------->
banca ------>
albergo --------->

Article by Giacomo DePasquale