Very few words have this ending, but the rule is the same as for similar cases discussed above: vowel I is kept in both masculine and feminine plurals.

bisbiglìo	"bysbyhllyhoh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	wispering
bisbiglìi	"bysbyhllyhyh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	wisperings

NOUNS ENDING WITH ...GNO AND ...GNA

These do not require a special discussion: as any other noun, masculine plural is ...gni and feminine plural is ...gne. Always remember that cluster gn sounds like Spanish ñ.

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
ragno (masculine)	"rahñoh" = spider	ragni	"rahñyh" = spiders
compagna (feminine)	"kohmpahñah" = partner	compagne	"kohmpahñeh" = partners

NOUNS ENDING WITH ...GNÌO AND ...GNÌA

Again, these few nouns have an accented vowel i, because it belongs to their penultimate syllable (which carries the stress). The pattern is quite similar to the ones discussed before:

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...gnìo	...ñyhoh (Spanish "ñ" sound)	...gnìi	...ñyhyh (Spanish "ñ" sound)
...gnìa	...ñyhah (Spanish "ñ" sound)	...gnìe	...ñyheh (Spanish "ñ" sound)

Therefore, both genders keep the i (masculine will have two). Actually, no common nouns or adjectives exist in the masculine form, and only one common noun exists in feminine gender:

compagnìa	"kohmpahñyhah" (Spanish "ñ" sound)	company
compagnìe	"kohmpahñyheh" (Spanish "ñ" sound)	companies

Take your time to become familiar with these inflections: once you master them, you should be able to cope with the great majority of Italian nouns and adjectives. Don't let the following paragraph scare you! Non-standard inflections might be a bit difficult to memorize, but they represent a minority: most nouns belong to the two general patterns. For this reason, you can memorize paragraph 2.3 little by little, while carrying on with further topics, but I suggest you should browse it, to have an idea of what non-standard inflections can look like.

2.3 GENDER AND NUMBER NON-STANDARD INFLECTIONS

Although most nouns and adjectives have a standard inflection, there are some words which follow different patterns. As said at the end of paragraph 2.1, they might not be easy to learn at once, but there is no need of doing so: simply read this page, try to understand how and why these inflections differ from the standard ones, and memorize them little by little, as you study further paragraphs.

NOUNS WITH A LATIN NEUTRE PLURAL

A few nouns indicating either objects or concepts which are commonly given a high consideration (i.e. some parts of the human body) have a standard masculine singular (....o) but a peculiar plural ending with ....a (which is the original Latin neutre plural inflection of the word); in modern Italian, though, this particular plural form has changed gender, and is feminine:

osso (masculine, singular)	"ohssoh"	bone
ossa (feminine, plural)	"ohssah"	bones
dito (masculine, singular)	"dyhtoh"	finger
dita (feminine, plural)	"dyhtah"	fingers
braccio (masculine, singular)	"brah'tchoh"	arm
braccia (feminine, plural)	"brah'tchah"	arms
gesto (masculine, singular)	"jehstoh"	human act, deed
gesta (feminine, plural)	"jehstah"	human acts, deeds

Sometimes these names have two plural forms, one feminine of Latin origin (as explained above), and one masculine (regular) with a similar though "less noble" meaning. This concept will be discussed again at the end of this paragraph. By now, try to memorize this important noun with a fully irregular gender:

mano (feminine despite the ...o, singular)	"mahnoh"	hand
mani (feminine despite the ...i, plural)	"mahnyh"	hands

NOUNS ENDING WITH ...tore

The ...tore ending usually indicates a human action or activity (in a very generic sense). Curiously, a few English words of Latin origin still have similar inflections (i.e. actor - actress, master - mistress, etc.):

guidatore (masculine)	"gwydahtohreh"	driver, conductor (masculine or feminine)
guidatrice (feminine)	"gwydahtryhcheh"
attore (masculine)	"ah'ttohreh"	actor (masculine)
attrice (feminine)	"ah'ttryhceh"	actress (feminine)
pittore (masculine)	"py'ttohreh"	painter (masculine)
pittrice (feminine)	"py'ttryhceh"	painter (feminine)
nuotatore (masculine)	"nwohtahtohreh"	swimmer (masculine or feminine)
nuotatrice (feminine)	"nwohtahtryhceh"
mentitore (masculine)	"mentyhtohreh"	lier (masculine or feminine)
mentitrice (feminine)	"mentyhtryhceh"

NOUNS WHOSE FEMININE INFLECTION IS ...essa

They belong to several categories, which cannot be specifically classified, but a few guidelines could be: noble ranks, some professional activities, some nouns whose masculine ends in ...one. Also in this case, some English feminine nouns have kept the Latin root.

barone (masculine)	"bahrohneh"	baron (masculine)
baronessa (feminine)	"bahrohnehssah" (notice the accent)	baroness (feminine)
duca (masculine)	"dwkah"	duke (masculine)
plural duchessa (feminine)	"dwkehssah" (accent shift again)	duchess (feminine)
studente (masculine)	"stwdehnteh"	student (masculine or feminine)
studentessa (feminine)	"stwdehntehssah"
dottore (masculine)	"doh'ttohreh"	doctor (masculine or feminine)
dottoressa (feminine)	"doh'ttohrehssah"
presidente (masculine)	"prehsyhdehnteh"	president (masculine or feminine)
presidentessa (feminine)	"prehsyhdehntehssah"
leone (masculine)	"lehohneh"	lion (masculine)
leonessa (feminine)	"lehohnehssah"	she-lion (feminine)

Besides the accent shift on the penultimate syllable (because this feminine inflection brings one additional syllable to the word), note how in the duca - duchessa example, an h has been added to keep the strong sound of the cluster ca ("ka") turning into che ("ke"); simply ce would have sounded like English "che".

NOUNS OF GREEK ORIGIN

Some nouns of Greek origin end in a in both masculine and feminine forms; originally, most of them did not have a feminine form, therefore the same inflection is now used also for feminine. What you could call a politically correct inflection! :) They indicate human activities. But in the plural form, they behave according to the standard inflections (see previous paragraph 2.2).

atleta (masculine and feminine, singular)	"ahtlehtah"	athlete (masculine and feminine)
atleti (masculine plural)
atlete (feminine plural)
eremita (masculine and feminine, singular)	"ehrehmytah"	hermit (masculine and feminine)
eremiti (masculine plural)
eremite (feminine plural)
idiota (masculine and feminine, singular)	"yhdyohtah"	idiot (masculine and feminine)
idioti (masculine plural)
idiote (feminine plural)

The same inflection also occurs in a number of nouns with masculine gender only:

monarca (= monarch); schema (pronounced "skehma" = scheme); problema (= problem); programma (= program); pentagramma (= pentagram); stemma (= crest); and few more.

These inflections are typically of Greek origin. Their plurals are regular (schemi, programmi, stemmi, etc.)

NOUNS WHOSE MASCULINE AND FEMININE HAVE DIFFERENT MEANINGS

A few nouns have different meanings when changing from masculine to feminine. They can be organized in different groups, according to the relation between the meaning of the two forms:

NOUNS WHOSE MASCULINE AND FEMININE ARE INDIVIDUAL

These few nouns have the same root in masculine and feminine forms, but they might be considered totally individual, because masculine singular turns into masculin plural, and feminine singular into feminine plural; their meaning is generically related, sometimes as a metaphor.

filo (masc. sing.) = string	fili (masc. plur.) = strings
fila (fem. sing.) = row, queue	file (fem. plural) = rows, queues
peso (masc. sing.) = weight	pesi (masc. plur.) = weights
pesa (fem. sing.) = scales for heavy goods	pese (fem. plural) = scales for heavy goods (plural)
visto (masc. sing.) = visa (for passports, etc.)	visti (masc. plur.) = visas
vista (fem. sing.) = sight; view	viste (fem. plur.) = sights; views

NOUNS INDICATING TREES AND THEIR FRUIT

The pattern "masculine for the tree - feminine for the fruit" is used for many fruits which grow on trees (but not for fruit coming from plants or bushes, such as melons, raspberries, grapes, etc. etc.):

melo = apple-tree	mela = apple
pesco = peach-tree	pesca = peach
olivo (or ulivo) = olive-tree	oliva = olive
ciliegio = cherry-tree	ciliegia = cherry
pruno = prune-tree	prugna = prune (notice a slight change in the noun's root)

A few fruit names, though, are masculine and this pattern could be confusing. Also when the fruit's name ends with e, masculine and feminine could be told only by the article (which will be the subject of the following paragraph) or by an adjective. In these cases, the above-said pattern may not be followed, and the form albero di ... (literally tree of ...) is used, followed by the fruit's plural form:

un limone (masculine, singular) = a lemon	un limone, or un albero di limoni = a lemon-tree
una noce (feminine, singular) = a nut	un noce, or un albero di noci = a nut-tree

The latter form can be used as a standard, also in the previous case, so apple-tree could be either melo or albero di mele. But such details are not really important at this stage, so don't worry about them now. Simply, be aware of the importance of masculine and feminine gender in Italian nouns. A few nouns have two different plural genders, with some difference in their meaning:

osso (masculine, singular) = bone

ossa (feminine, plural, Latin neutre form, see above) = bones (of living beings)

ossi (masculine plural) = bones (in a more "material" sense, i.e. a bone of a T-steak)

gesto (masculine, singular) = human act, deed, or gesture

gesta (feminine, plural, Latin neutre form) = human acts, deeds

gesti (masculine plural) = gestures

NOUNS WHOSE SINGULAR AND PLURAL INFLECTIONS ARE THE SAME

They belong to several categories:

FOREIGN NOUNS

Italian is becoming slowly accustomed to new foreign terms, especially in technical fields; some of these terms have no actual equivalent in the original language, so they are periodically added to the standard dictionary. Some others, though, are perfectly translatable; in these cases, the use of foreign terms is considered rather snobbish, also because in Italy the knowledge of foreign languages is still far from a good standard. Furthermore, people who like showing themselves by using foreign words are very likely to pronounce them incorrectly, or to misspell them; on the other end, when foreign words are pronounced correctly, they might even be not understood at all, a funny paradox. Therefore, if a foreign word has an Italian equivalent, it is advisable to use the latter. Nevertheless, many international terms of common use would never create a problem. This is how gender works in these cases.

• When the meaning of the term is similar to an Italian one, or when it has a specific gender in the original language, the noun is usually given the same gender in Italian. A few examples:

CD (compact disk) basically relates to the concept of music record (in Italian: disco, masculine), so this noun, either short form or full-length form, is considered masculine, and obviously floppy disk, hard disk, etc. are masculine too, since they contain the same concept of recording device; metro (short form for the French métropolitaine = urban subway railway) is also used in Italian; the "official" form is metropolitana, feminine (actual translation of the French term, very similar to Italian), but the short form is also used, obviously with feminine gender. e-mail is similar to mail (in Italian: posta, feminine), so it is usually considered feminine, although some "purists" prefer to use the actual translation posta elettronica (electronic mail);

• When the gender of the noun is more indefinite (no similarity with Italian nouns), it is usually given a standard masculine gender (which in Italian mimics the neutre gender):

sport, computer or PC, würstel, whisky, ouverture, modem, menù (also spelled menu, as in French), etc. etc.

But in their plural forms, these nouns are always treated as if they were singular:

due metro (two subways), tre menù (three menus), quattro e-mail (four e-mails), and so on.

Some people prefer to use the foreign plurals (due ouvertures, quattro e-mails, etc.): This too is considered correct, provided that the right plurals are used (for example, words of German origin cannot be turned into their plural forms by simply adding an s).

NOUNS WITH AN ACCENT ON THE LAST SYLLABLE

Words whose last syllable is stressed carry a graphic accent on the last letter (always a vowel). Most of them come from longer words of archaic origin, which have dropped the last syllable, and are therefore known as "truncated nouns"; they are easily told because of the last accented vowel:

metà (either half or halves); virtù (either virtue or virtues); viltà (cowardness, either singular or plural); bontà (goodness, either used to indicate the quality, or the object itself, i.e. le bontà = the good things, the good food); etc.

Other words with an accent on the last vowel, though not real truncated nouns (because they were not originated from longer nouns), behave in the same way:

caffè (either coffee or coffees); falò (either great fire or great fires); etc.

SHORTENED NOUNS

On the opposite end, there are several nouns which are often "shortened" in common speech, as if they were truncated nouns, but have no accent.

bicicletta (bycicle) is shortened in bici (either singular or plural); fotografia (photograph) is shortened in foto (either singular or plural); metropolitana (subway, also mentioned above) is shortened in metro; etc..

In official texts, their full spelling is preferred, although their short form is sometimes used for compounds, like fotoamatore (amateur photographer), etc. Obviously only the short version has one inflection, while the full-length noun has ordinary singular and plural forms (fotografia sing., fotografie plur.).

MONOSYLLABIC NOUNS

Also monosyllabic nouns, which are very few in Italian, behave as truncated words, because their only syllable carries the accent (although a graphic accent is not indicated, except for tè):

re (either king or kings); tè (either tea or teas); all musical notes: do (C), re (D), mi (E), etc.

NOUNS OF GREEK ORIGIN ENDING WITH ...si

These nouns end with ...esi, ...isi, ...osi, they are feminine, and in most cases they belong to specific fields (either philosophical, or mathemathical, or medical, etc.); some of them, though, do often occur in everyday's speech too. These are a few common ones:

tesi (feminine) both thesis and theses; ipotesi (feminine) both hypothesis or hypotheses and; paralisi (feminine) both paralysis and paralyses; osmosi (feminine) osmosis (normally used in singular form, though the Italian plural is the same); catarsi (feminine) catharsis (same as above for plural).

As you see, also English uses the Greek root, and forms a plural by only changing the penultimate vowel i into e. Other nouns with one single inflection are very few, and should be considered exceptions, therefore they cannot be classified. An example is:

vaglia = masculine, both money order and money orders.

2.4 ARTICLES

Articles can prove a little tricky to English speakers, because English only has two: the (definite article) and a (indefinite), and the only variation is the use of an (instead of a) when nouns start with a vowel: a box, an eye. In Italian, though, articles need to match the noun they relate to, both by gender and by number: for example, translating the lady and the man different articles have to be used (la donna and l'uomo), as well as for the cat and the cats (il gatto and i gatti). Furthermore, Italian language uses articles more often than English: general nouns and numerals sometimes require them, whereas in English they are usually omitted ("he prefers wine to beer" in Italian would be translated "he prefers the wine to the beer"); in the same way, "I was born in the 1963" sounds queer in English. Finally, Italian articles also have to match phonetically the word coming next, to produce a more fluent sound, and they do this by modifying their basic inflection..... But don't panic! Mastering these articles is a much easier task than it might seem from this description, and once you become familiar with the sound of Italian language (more than with the actual rules), your ears will help you more than your memory. So, let's become familiar with each of them, one at a time:

DEFINITE ARTICLES

• LO (masculine, singular) it is used before nouns starting with a z (at the beginning of a word, it always sounds as English "dz", not "tz"), and with nouns starting with clusters s + consonant (sb..., sc..., sd... etc.):

lo zucchero (the sugar) lo zoccolo (the clog) lo scambio (the exchange) lo spazio (the space)

• IL (masculine, singular) it is used when the noun starts with any consonant not belonging to the previous case:

il cane (the dog) il mare (the sea) il castello (the castle) il treno (the train) il sole (the sun)

• LA (feminine, singular) it is used whith nouns starting with any consonant:

la casa (the house) la forza (the strength) la scatola (the box) la zuppa (the soup)

• L' (both masculine and feminine, singular) this is the elision of lo or la: their vowel has been dropped, and an apostrophe has taken its place; you can see from the examples how no space separates the article from the following letter. It is used whith nouns starting with a vowel. The loss of the article's vowel is to provide a swifter sound, as the sound of two vowels would "slow down" the pronounciation:

l'occhio (masculine, pronounced "loh'kkyoh", the eye) l'acqua (feminine, pronounced "lah'kkwah", the water) l'impatto (masculine, "lympahttoh", the impact) l'aria (feminine, "lahryah", the air)

• GLI (masculine, plural) it is used whith nouns starting with: - vowels, - consonant z, - clusters made of s + another consonant (sb..., sc..., sd... etc.), - cluster gn:

gli artisti (the artists) gli elefanti (the elephants) gli infedeli (the infidels) gli occhi (the eyes), gli uomini (the men) gli zoccoli (the clogs) gli studenti (the students) gli scandali (the scandals), gli gnomi (the gnomes)

• I (masculine, plural) it is used whith nouns starting with consonants which do not belong to the previous case:

i cavalli (the horses) i signori (the gentlemen) i rami (the branches)

• LE (feminine, plural) it is used whith any noun (either starting with a consonant or a vowel):

le ville (the villas) le ali (the wings) le piante (the plants) le espressioni (the expressions) le scarpe (the shoes)

Note that le does not follow the elision rule as for the singular form. See also the bottom of the page for a further minor note.