Lesson 3 : nouns gender and articles
In italian there are two nouns gender, which means that every word is either masculine or feminine and this is very important to know, because when a noun is accompanied by an adjective this one has to take either the masculine or the feminine ending (suffix). It seems way harder that it actually is.
To guess if a noun is masculine you can look at the ending vowel of the word. it is not a rule but a tendency. In fact the majority of times masculine nouns end in:
e (but also some feminine words can end in e)
e.g ā> naso (nose) is masculine
fiore (flower) is masculine
- most chemical elements and substances are masculine
- the days of the week and months names are masculine
- most sea, rivers, mountains names are masculine
Exceptions : there are a few exceptions, here are the most common ones:
Problema (problem) ,Ā tema (theme), collega (collegue), clima (climate), panorama, fantasma (ghost), diploma, pianeta (planet), profeta (prophet), poetaĀ (poet)Ā ā> these ones are all masculine despite the ending
Articles : as you may have noticed in italian we use definite article way more than in english. Thatās why nouns are almost always preceded by a definite article, which is the equivalent of the english āTheā
Definite article for masculine : IL ,LO, or Lā [LO is used for words that begin with z or s + other consonant. Instead IL is used with every other noun, including words which begin with s+ vowel, Lā is used when the word begins with a vowel].
e.g. : Zio (uncle) ā> Lo zio
Studente (student) ā> Lo studente
Sale (salt) ā> Ā il sale
Vento (wind) ā> il vento
Uomo (man) ā> Ā lāuomo
Definite articles are always used when referring to a specific object/concept, but also when one speaks in general.
The wind today is very annoying [specific] = il vento oggi ĆØ molto fastidioso
Wind is very annoying [general] = il vento ĆØ molto fastidioso
Itās very rare that articles are omitted, so for now donāt worry about it and when in doubt just put it !
Indefinite articles, instead, work just as the english equivalent a, an. Therefore they are used when we are referring to an unidentified object/concept, whatever object/concept. Ā
For masculine gender they are : Un or Uno [uno is used in the same cases as the definite lo]
e.g : Ā Uno zio (an uncle)
Uno studente Ā (a student)
tĆ¹ (not so frequent, all nouns that descend from latin words in -tus)
e.g : casa (house) is feminine
lāape (bee) is feminine
la gioventĆ¹ (youth) is feminine
As you can see feminine nouns end in e as well as masculine nouns. Then how can you tell if an e-ending noun is masculine or feminine? Thereās no concrete way to tell. All you can do is memorize them : thatās why in my vocabulary tables Iāll always write the definite article so youāll know whether itās feminine or masculine. For now I can tell you that there are some patterns that may help you:Ā
- nouns ending inĀ ā dineĀ ā are feminineĀ
- most fruit names are feminine
Exceptions : Mano (hand), radio are feminine.
Common abbreviation that may trick you into guessing these wordsās gender wrong : Foto ā> fotografia (photo), Auto ā> automobile (car),Ā Moto ā> motocicletta ( motorcycleĀ ). They are always feminine even in their shortened form.Ā
Definite articles : for feminine nouns they are : LA or Lā [ lā is used when the word begins with a vowel. la in all other cases]
e.g. Casa (house) ā> la casa
Indefinite articles : Una or Unā ( Unā is used if the words begins with a vowel. Always check to write the apostrophe mark only if the word is feminine!)
!!! Unāape [feminine word that begins with vowel ā> apostrophe] ā un uomo [masculine word that begins with vowel ā>Ā no apostrophe mark]
Next lesson Iāll explain plurals and adjectivesāendingsĀ š
