Today, we’re talking about gender and number in Italian. And no, I don’t just mean “Mary” or “John” — I mean every single noun. And when I say every, I wrote it in capitals on purpose.
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Gender and number in Italian: Video Guide
Every Single Noun in Italian Has a Gender
Every single noun in Italian has its own gender. It is either masculine or feminine. And when I say every, I mean every: not just people, but also objects, animals, and things.
Why is this important? Because in English, you have “it” for things. English doesn’t give objects a gender — but in Italian, even items have a gender.
Let me give you a real example:
“Have you bought the car that you told me about two months ago?”
“Yes, I bought it.”
In Italian, that “it” is feminine, because car (macchina) is feminine. We use the feminine pronoun to replace it.
Same thing if we talk about an apartment:
“Have you bought the apartment you told me about?”
“Yes, I bought it.”
Here, “it” would be masculine, because apartment (appartamento) is masculine.
So, even when you’re talking about objects or items, the pronoun must agree with the gender of the noun.
Gender and Number in Italian: Singular and Plural
Just like in English you have “house” → “houses” or “apartment” → “apartments,” Italian also has singular and plural forms.
Generally speaking (and I wrote “generally speaking” in English on purpose here, because there are exceptions), the pattern is:
- Masculine singular nouns end in -o → masculine plural ends in -i
- Feminine singular nouns end in -a → feminine plural ends in -e
Examples:
- Masculine:
- Sing. → appartamento (apartment)
- Plur. → appartamenti
- Feminine:
- Sing. → casa (house)
- Plur. → case
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