Italian Noun Gender and Plurals: Il Problema, Le Mani and Other Surprises

Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and its ending usually tells you which. Plurals follow patterns too, with a few quirks.

Gender by ending

Ending	Usually	Examples
-o	masculine	libro, gatto, amico
-a	feminine	casa, penna, amica
-e	either	il padre (m.), la madre (f.), il fiore (m.), la notte (f.)

Nouns ending in -e must be learned with their gender.

Regular plurals

Singular	Plural
-o → -i	libro → libri
-a → -e	casa → case
-e → -i	notte → notti

Spelling changes

To keep the hard sound of c and g, an h is added before the plural ending:

• amica → amiche
• lago → laghi
• banca → banche

Masculine nouns in -co and -go vary: amico → amici but lago → laghi. A dictionary shows the plural.

Masculine nouns ending in -a

Many nouns ending in -ma come from Greek and are masculine:

• il problema → i problemi
• il programma → i programmi
• il sistema → i sistemi
• il tema → i temi

Irregular plurals

Singular	Plural
la mano (hand)	le mani
l'uovo (egg)	le uova
l'uomo (man)	gli uomini
il dito (finger)	le dita

Note that la mano is feminine even though it ends in -o.

Nouns that don't change

Words ending in an accented vowel, and many borrowed words, stay the same:

• la città → le città
• il caffè → i caffè
• il film → i film
• il bar → i bar

Why gender matters

Adjectives, articles and past participles agree with the noun: una casa bella, due case belle. Getting the gender right makes everything else fall into place.

Tips

1. Learn every noun with its article (il libro, la casa).
2. Watch the exceptions in the tables.
3. Use the dictionary, which shows gender for each noun.

Look up any word with English Italian Dictionary →