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 –> 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
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]
tù (not so frequent, all nouns that descend from latin words in -tus)
e.g : casa (house) 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
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!)
!!! 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 💕
