Sign in. The adjective, Italian, can be either masculine or feminine/ EX: La maison Italienne is feminine but Le village Italien is masculine. But if you say that you love the midnight hour generally, you say, Mi piace la mezzanotte. You can sign in to vote the answer. She also hosts the 30 Minute Italian podcast. There are a number of exceptions, like il poeta, "the poet," being masculine, but you can stick to the rule above when in doubt. And by following some simple rules, you can learn to classify the great majority of Italian nouns. Some examples of masculine nouns include (with the Italian on the left and the English translation on the right): The most important element to look for to determine the gender is the definite article, but you’ll notice that nouns ending in -e may be masculine or feminine. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Examples: il mar e (the sea), il dent e (the tooth), la nav e (the ship), la ment e (the mind). a. Masculine. In Italian, in general, nouns ending in "-e" can be either masculine or feminine. 2 0. But: In Italian you have to use an article in possessive constructions (where you would not use one in English): You can remember this by thinking of the possessive construction in Italian as "the thing of someone" rather than "someone's thing.". Same for these nouns: It is important to remember that this is true no matter if the noun is one of those ending in -e in the singular and -i in the plural: if it is feminine, it gets a feminine article, singular or plural: It is good to review the rules regarding the pluralization of nouns and how those work. Grammatical “gender” is really just a way of classifying nouns. If you speak English, you probably won’t have a clue on how to know if an Italian word is masculine or feminine. This can be a strange concept to native English speakers as cars are often not thought of as being feminine (except to car aficionados) and dogs are not thought of as being masculine, like in Italian. Single feminine nouns use the single feminine article la; plural feminine nouns use the feminine plural article le. They can either be masculine or feminine. Italian nouns almost always end with a vowel. Generally, anything that has specificity gets an article. Without the article, some nouns in the singular can look identical: You do not elide plural articles even if followed by a vowel: You use a definite article in front of most common nouns most always. In English you say, "Man is an intelligent being." Of course this is about masculine and feminine and not about singular and plural (una giacca verde, due giacche verdi) But colors are no different than nouns in general :) There are exceptions but not for the basic colors. (Notice here the article combined with a preposition, making something called an articulated preposition). You use articles with geographical locations: But, not with the preposition in, for example, which you use with continents, countries, islands, and regions: Definite articles are used with the last names of famous people: With proper names used with specification: (In Tuscany, articles are liberally used before proper names, particularly feminine names, but sometimes male names too: la Franca.). In Italian you have to use an article: L'uomo è un essere intelligente. Most singular masculine nouns get the article il; in the plural, that article becomes i. This happens because abbreviated nouns retain the gender of the words from which they are derived. Masculine nouns to memorize include: Nouns ending -ione are generally feminine, while nouns ending in -ore are almost always masculine, as demonstrated by the examples in this table. But in Italian, the form of “a” changes, depending on the word. Usually, Italians will still be able to understand you, so just focus on expressing yourself and don’t worry about having perfect grammar. For example, you use definite articles in Italian with broad categories or groups, while in English you don't. Il : for masculine singular nouns which start with a consonant. When you are making a list, each item or person gets its own article: If you say, "I need to get bread, cheese, and milk," very generically, those can go with or without articles: Devo prendere pane, formaggio, e latte. Le masculin. How does it work? Remember that in Italian, every noun is either masculine or feminine so the definite article, "the" in English, is either masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular or feminine plural. Au singulier, les noms masculins se terminent par un -o ou par un -e et les noms féminins se terminent par un -a ou un -e. Je vous propose de transformer des phrases du féminin au masculin :Voici quelques exemples : La gatta è bella. Same for the following: Also, masculine nouns they take the articles lo and gli when they begin with the following: Remember, lo/gli is only for masculine nouns. (Those that don’t are most probably foreign in origin.) Anonymous. Words like “bar” that end in a consonant are generally masculine, such as autobus, film, or sport. The goal of learning a foreign language will always be connection instead of perfection. Generally, in Italian you use more definite articles than in English, though there are some exceptions. The general rule is that nouns ending in “-o” are masculine and nouns ending in “-a” are feminine. Generally, singular nouns ending in -o are masculine while nouns ending in -a are feminine. Masculine nouns do NOT get the articles il and i but rather lo and gli when they begin with a vowel. In the plural, it is rose and it uses the article le. Formation of Italian Plural Nouns Ending in -O, Italian Indefinite Articles - Articoli Indeterminativi, Adjectives in Italian: Form and Agreement, Italian Direct Object Pronouns With Passato Prossimo, When to Use the Partitive Article in Italian, Conjugating Italian Verbs in the Passive Tense, Un caffè (one coffee) = due caffè (two coffees), Un film (one movie) = due film (two movies), Una foto (one photo) = due foto (two photos). In Italian you have to give the dog an article: Il cane è il miglior amico dell'uomo. In Italian, on the other hand, the definite article has different forms according to the gender, number, and even the first letter or two of the noun it precedes. The gender of a word is just a fact of the language, and native speakers of Romance (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian), Germanic, and Slavic languages have a natural ability to attribute the right gender to any new word they learn. Remember that the gender of nouns is not something that you choose: It simply is, much like a mathematical formula, and sometimes you need to use a dictionary to find out what it is (if you have no article available to tell you). This can be a strange concept to native English speakers as cars are often not thought of as being feminine (except to car aficionados) and dogs are not thought of as being masculine, like in Italian. In English you say, "I love botanical gardens"; in Italian you say, Amo gli orti botanici. All nouns in Italian have a gender ( il genere); that is, they are either masculine or feminine, even those referring to things, qualities, or ideas. Again, as for the feminine, this stands even if it is a masculine noun with the ending in -e in the singular; if it is masculine, it gets a masculine article. For example, the noun albero, or tree, is masculine and it begins with a vowel; its article is lo; in the plural, alberi, its article is gli. When you start learning Italian grammar, you’ll hear one concept often: Everything in Italian must agree in gender and number. This makes learning definite articles a bit more complicated, but once you know the structure, it’s relatively simple to get used to. Now, don’t get your nose out of joint over this one. Again, if an adjective precedes the last name, you use the article that fits the gender, of course, but adapting to the first letter of the adjective: There are some nouns that do not require articles (or not always): You don't have to (but you can) use a definite article before an academic subject, including a language, when you are speaking it or studying it: But you do use an article generally if you are talking about something about the subject itself: You do not use definite articles in front of days of the week unless you mean every one such day or if you are speaking of a specific Monday.

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