DISPENSA

MASCHILE E FEMMINILE
IN ITALIANO

Masculine/ Feminine

Nouns in Italians belong to TWO separate categories, called GENERE (gender).

THE CATEGORIES are MASCHILE and FEMMINILE.

A noun can belong ONLY to one of these two categories, which means it can  be EITHER masculine or feminine but not both.

But what about nouns like  BAMBINO and BAMBINA?

THEY STILL ARE TWO DIFFERENT NOUNS. Bambino is MASC, Bambina is FEM.

(Feel free to call them "different forms" of a noun, but the substance does not change: each word can have only one gender.)

Some nouns have both forms, masculine and feminine. These are usually words that apply to people, animals or other natural entities, in that they refer to their biological gender.

Ex:      

RAGAZZO boy RAGAZZA girl

BAMBINO  male child BAMBINA  female child

GATTO cat GATTA fem. cat

CAVALLO  horse m CAVALLA   horse f

Most words that describe physical OBJECTS or CONCEPTS, however, are either masculine or feminine, without a compelling logic.

MASCULINE

MOST NOUNS ENDING WITH “O” ARE MASCULINE

LIBRO   book

GIUDIZIO judgment

GIOCO  game

STADIO  stadium

FEMININE

MOST NOUNS ENDING WITH “A” ARE FEMININE

AULA classroom

SCUOLA  school

IDEA  idea

GIUSTIZIA giustizia

NOUNS ENDING WITH “E” ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND CAN BE EITHER MASC. OR FEM.

You must learn each word and its gender.

MASCULINE

SOLE   sun

AMORE love

CUORE  heart

FIORE  flower

FEMININE

CLASSE class

LEZIONE  lecture

PACE  peace

LUCE light

PLURAL

Nouns have NUMERO (number). THE CATEGORIES are SINGOLARE and PLURALE.

Summary chart

O => I

A => E

E => I

• Words ending with “O” (usually masculine words) in the singular, become “I” in the plural.

LIBRO > LIBRI        TAVOLO > TAVOLI           GELATO > GELATI

• Words ending with “A” (usually masculine words) in the singular, become “E” in the plural.

AULA > AULE           SCUOLA > SCUOLE            BAMBINA > BAMBINE

• Words ending with “E” (either M or F) in the singular, become “I” in the plural.

CLASSE > CLASSI               PROFESSORE > PROFESSORI                 LUCE > LUCI

INDEFINITE ARTICLES

• Masculine UN, UNO

UN = before words beginning with vowels and consonants

UNO = before words that begin with “S” followed by a consonant (ex: STudente, STadio, SCambio, SPuto,) and words beginning with “Z” (zero, zaino, zucchero, zenzero)

• Feminine UNA

In front of words beginning with a vowel, ofter UNA becomes  < UN’ > with an apostrophe to indicate that the final letter “A” was dropped (it’s for euphonic  [ good sound ] reasons).

UNA IDEA > UN’IDEA, UNA AMICA > UN’AMICA

DEFINITE ARTICLES

• Masculine IL, LO, L'

IL = before words beginning with a CONSONANT

LO = before words that begin with “S” followed by a consonant (ex: STudente, STadio, SCambio, SPuto,) and words beginning with “Z” (zero, zaino, zucchero, zenzero)

L'= before words that begin with a VOWEL

• Feminine LA, L'

LA = before words beginning with a CONSONANT

L' = before words that begin with a VOWEL