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.
Masculine gender
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:
o
e (but also some feminine words can end in e)
e.g --> 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) , tema (theme), collega (collegue), clima (climate), panorama, fantasma (ghost), diploma, pianeta (planet), profeta (prophet), poeta (poet) --> 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. That’s why nouns are almost always preceded by a definite article, which is the equivalent of the english ‘The’
Definite article for masculine : IL ,LO, or L’ [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, L’ is used when the word begins with a vowel].
e.g. : Zio (uncle) --> Lo zio
Studente (student) ---> Lo studente
Sale (salt) ---> il sale
Vento (wind) ---> il vento
Uomo (man) --> l’uomo
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 è molto fastidioso
Wind is very annoying [general] = il vento è molto fastidioso
It’s very rare that articles are omitted, so for now don’t 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.
For masculine gender they are : Un or Uno [uno is used in the same cases as the definite lo]
e.g : Uno zio (an uncle)
Uno studente (a student)
Un serpente (a snake)
Un libro (a book)
Un uomo ( a man)
Feminine gender
Feminine words end in :
a
e
tù (not so frequent, all nouns that descend from latin words in -tus)
e.g : casa (house) is feminine
l’ape (bee) is feminine
la gioventù (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? There’s no concrete way to tell. All you can do is memorize them : that’s why in my vocabulary tables I’ll always write the definite article so you’ll know whether it’s feminine or masculine. For now I can tell you that there are some patterns that may help you:
- nouns ending in ‘ dine ‘ are feminine
- most fruit names are feminine
Exceptions : Mano (hand), radio are feminine.
Common abbreviation that may trick you into guessing these words’s gender wrong : Foto --> fotografia (photo), Auto --> automobile (car), Moto --> motocicletta ( motorcycle ). They are always feminine even in their shortened form.
Definite articles : for feminine nouns they are : LA or L’ [ l’ is used when the word begins with a vowel. la in all other cases]
e.g. Casa (house) --> la casa
Ape (bee) --> l'ape
Luna (moon) --> la luna
Indefinite articles : Una or Un' ( Un' is used if the words begins with a vowel. Always check to write the apostrophe mark only if the word is feminine!)
Una casa : a house
Un' ape : a bee
Una luna : a moon
Una foto : a photo
!!! Un'ape [feminine word that begins with vowel --> apostrophe] ≠ un uomo [masculine word that begins with vowel --> no apostrophe mark]
Next lesson I’ll explain plurals and adjectives’endings 💕
