Grammar: Nouns

Grammar: Nouns

Classification of Nouns

• In Italian, nouns (i nomi) are classified into two genders: masculine and feminine. Each noun can be singular or plural.
• The gender of a noun will influence the form of the adjectives and articles that accompany the noun.
• A useful tip is the majority of Italian nouns ending in -o are masculine, and most of them ending with -a are feminine.

Pluralisation of Nouns

• In general, Italian nouns form their plural by changing the final vowel of the singular form.
• A standard guide is that singular masculine nouns ending in -o become -i in their plural form. For example, libro (book) becomes libri (books).
• Singular feminine nouns ending in -a usually become -e in plural. For example: ragazza (girl) becomes ragazze (girls).

Irregular Nouns

• Not all nouns conform to the rules of pluralisation mentioned above.
• There are some irregular nouns that form their plurals differently.
• Some masculine nouns end in -a, while some feminine nouns end in -o.
• Some nouns are identical in both the singular and plural forms. For example, la crisi (the crisis) remains le crisi (the crises) in the plural.

Countable and Uncountable

• Some Italian nouns are countable (i.e., they have a singular and a plural form), while others are uncountable (i.e., they do not have a plural form).
• Uncountable nouns are usually things that in English we wouldn’t use in the plural form, such as information (informazione), advice (consiglio), etc.

Definite and Indefinite Articles

• Italian nouns are preceded by articles that are equivalent to English’s “the” (le, la, i, il, gli, l’) and “a/an” (un, una).
• The form of the article changes depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
• Some exceptions to standard article and gender rules exist, so always learn the gender of a noun and its corresponding article when learning new vocabulary.