Italian Grammar 102 – Plurals

Generally to make the plural of Italian nouns you only have to change the last vowel. So:

masculine ending in -o (sing) = -i (pl)
feminine ending in -a (sing) = -e (pl)

For example:

masculine: amico – amici (friend/friends), libro – libri (book/books), tavolo – tavoli (table/tables)
feminine: penna – penne (pen/pens), sedia – sedie (chair/chairs), matita – matite (pencil/pencils)

If the noun ends in -e, then the plural is made with an -i

ristorante – ristoranti (restaurant/restaurants), fiore – fiori (flower/flowers)

There are some exceptions though:

– words ending in -tà and -tù stay the same in the plural: città – città (city/cities)

– foreign words ending with a consonant stay the same: bar – bar (bar/bars)

– some of the masculine nouns referring to the body become feminine in the plural ending in -a:

braccio – braccia (arm/arms), dito – dita (finger/fingers), ginocchio – ginocchia (knee/knees)

When the plural refers to two or more nouns of different genders, the masculine plural is used:

5 ragazze (fem) + 1 ragazzo (masc) = 6 ragazzi (masc)

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