Italian nouns (1)

In Italian, nouns can be classified according to the gender, in masculine (maschili) and feminine (femminili), and to the number, in singular (singolari) and plural (plurali). The ending vowel of a noun reveals its gender and its number.

Usually, nouns that end with the vowel –O are masculine (tavolo = table, ragazzo = boy) while nouns that end with the vowel –A are feminine (sedia = chair, mappa = map). 

But there are also nouns that end with –E that can be masculine or feminine (mare = sea is a masculine noun, while chiave = key is feminine). We can understand the gender of these nouns from the article placed before or checking on a dictionary.

Now we know that masculine nouns usually end with –O and feminine nouns end with –A. However, there are exceptions. So, some nouns that end with –A are masculine and some that end with –O are feminine.

Let's see now how to make the plural of a noun. In Italian, to change the number of a noun from singular to plural, we must change the ending vowel. Masculine nouns that end with vowel –O and –E, in the plural form end with vowel –I.

Feminine nouns that end with vowel –A, in the plural form end with vowel –E, while feminine nouns that end with –E, in the plural form end with vowel –I.

Feminine nouns that end with –O have the same form in the singular and in the plural.