#grammar digest

[sciogli-lingua]

I’m well aware the topic is a pretty thorny one, so I had a look around the Internet (and in my old textbook) and tried to come up with an easy guide to guess the gender of Italian nouns. Very quick and basic, but I hope it’ll help somebody!

In Italian, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. You can usually deduce the gender of a noun from its ending. If we're talking people or animals, it's pretty simple: to a male being will correspond a masculine noun, and to a female a feminine one. Things start to get messy when inanimate objects are involved; here are a couple of tips to correctly guess their gender.

Focusing on the ending:

MAINLY MASCULINE

nouns ending in -o: il cielo (sky), il miracolo (miracle)...

Exceptions: very few, such as l'eco (=la eco, echo) or la mano, or shortened forms like la foto (=la fotografia, photo) and l'auto (=la auto =la automobile, car)

nouns ending in a consonant, often of foreign origin: lo sport, il bar, il test...

Exceptions: many. La band, la leadership, la gang...

MAINLY FEMININE

nouns ending in -a: la barca (boat), la camicia (shirt)...

Exceptions: various nouns coming from Greek and ending in -ma are actually masculine. Il dramma (drama), il problema (problem), il diploma...

Also, there are nouns that apply to both genders: il/la chitarrista (guitar player), lo/la artista (artist)...

nouns ending in -i, usually of Greek origin: la crisi (crisis), l'analisi (analysis), la sintesi (synthesis)...

Exceptions: il brindisi (toast), il safari...

nouns ending in -tà or -tù: la pietà (mercy), la virtù (virtue)...

Exceptions: words not coming from Latin can be masculine: il tutù (tutu).

BOTH MASCULINE AND FEMININE

nouns ending in -e: il dente (tooth), il sapone (soap), BUT la prigione (prison), la canzone (song)

Watch out! If the -e is part of certain classes of suffixes (such as -ite or -zione for feminine, or -tore for masculine) it's easier to determine the gender of the noun!

Focusing on the meaning

MAINLY MASCULINE

trees: il melo (apple tree), il pero (pear tree), il pioppo (poplar)...

Exceptions: La palma (palm tree), la vite (grapevine)...

metals, elements, chemical compounds: l(o)'ossigeno (oxygen), il ferro (iron)...

Exceptions: l(a)'anidride (anhydride)...

months, cardinal points and days of the week (except for Sunday=la domenica): il lunedì (Monday), il Nord, l'Ovest (West)...

mountains, seas, rivers, lakes: l(o)'Everest, il Monte Bianco, il Tevere (Tiber), il Po...

Exceptions: le Dolomiti (Dolomites), la Senna (Seine), la Loira (Loire)...

MAINLY FEMININE

fruit: mela (apple), arancia (orange), pesca (peach)...

Exceptions: il mandarino (tangerine), il kiwi, l'avocado...

cities, islands, regions, countries, continents: l(a)'Italia, la Spagna (Spain), la Norvegia (Norway)...

Exceptions: maaaany. L(=lo)'Egitto (Egypt), il Messico (Mexico), gli Stati Uniti (USA)...

sciences, branches of knowledge, abstract notions: la chimica (chemistry), la giustizia (justice)...

Exceptions: l(o)'amore (love)...

As you might have noticed, the morphological criterion (=ending) seems to win over the one concerning the meaning. Thus, for example, Messico is a country, but it ends in -o so it'll be masculine instead of feminine.

[sciogli-lingua]

Italian Articles: a quick guide

Definite article

What are the forms?

When do we use it? 1) referring to people or things that are clearly recognizable and distinct.

They might have been mentioned before:

Ex. Ieri ho visto una coppia per la strada. Il ragazzo sembrava turbato. -- Yesterday I've met a couple on the street. The boy (not just any boy, but the one who's part of the aforementioned couple) looked upset.

Or they might be already known in an ordinary situation:

Ex. Ha chiamato il nonno. -- Grandpa called.

2) referring to a whole class of people or things:

Ex. I gatti sono i miei animali preferiti. -- Cats are my favorite animals.

Indefinite article

What are the forms?

You might notice a lack of plural forms; it gets a tiny little bit more complicated there. Since we don't really have them, we use partitive articles (dei/degli for masculine nouns and delle for feminine ones), which are actually articulated prepositions used as articles. Articulated prepositions are born from the union between articles and prepositions, you can get the general principle behind that looking at the scheme below:

When do we use it?

1) referring to something that's indefinite or newly introduced --> Incontrai un uomo vestito di nero. (= I ran into a man dressed in black)

2) referring to a whole class of people or things (yep, right, same as the definite one. Practical, amirite?), with a slightly more generic meaning --> Un gatto non è come un cane (= A cat is not like a dog)

3) designating an indistinct part of a class (English "some") --> Ci sono dei quaderni sul tavolo (= There are some notebooks on the table)

How do we know which form to use?

Besides the obvious variations in gender and number, differents articles are also employed depending on the first letter of the word that follows them.

Let's tackle the masculine forms first, il/lo and un/uno (singular) and i/gli (plural).

Before a vowel, you don't have much of a choice: you must employ either the elided form l' or  un for singular nouns (l'asino, l'agnello = donkey, lamb), and gli for plurals.

Un and il/i (or dei) are commonly known as "weak" forms, and are employed before:

1) words beginning with a single consonant (that's not x or z) --> Un paesaggio, il declino, i gatti (= landscape, decline, cats) Watch out: "gli dèi(=the gods)" is an exception! 2) words beginning with a consonantic group other than s + l or r --> il pranzo, un grattacielo (= lunch, skyscraper) 3) foreign words beginning with w --> il whisky, i western (= whiskey, westerns)

Uno and lo/gli (or degli), strong forms, are used before:

1) sce or sci sounds --> lo sciocco, uno sceicco (=fool, sheik) 2) i + vowel --> lo iato, uno iettatore (= hiatus, jinx) 3) gn and z sounds --> lo gnomo, lo zio (= gnome, uncle) 4) s followed by a consonant --> lo sparo, uno strazio (= shot, torture) 5) x, y and consonantic groups when the second element isn't l or r --> lo psicologo, lo xilofono (= pshycologist, xylophone)

Moving on, we have the feminine forms, slightly easier to use.

Le is the only option for plurals, no matter their first letter. For singular nouns, instead, we use the forms una and la:

1) before a consonant --> la gioia, una candela (= joy, candle) 2) before i + vowel --> la iena (= hyena)

While we employ the elided forms un' and l' before a vowel.

If you feel like you need it, I could also offer a little insight on peculiar usage of articles. Let me know! :D

[sciogli-lingua]

A very brief compendium of capitalization rules in Italian, covering the basics. Many are the same as in English, but there are also fundamental differences to be noted.

Please do ask if you still have questions!

1) at the beginning of a sentence, whether it be after a full stop or after a question/exclamation mark

Ex. Giovanni non era ancora tornato. La madre lo aspettava sulla porta. -- Giovanni still wasn’t back. His mother waited for him at the door.

2) to begin direct speech

Ex. "Hai conosciuto la ragazza nuova?" "No, non ancora." -- “Have you met the new girl?” “No, not yet.”

3) for people's or animals' names

Ex. Il cane di Marco si chiama Lilli. -- Marco’s dog is called Lilli.

4) for holidays

Ex. Come festeggerai il Natale quest'anno? -- How will you celebrate Christmas this year?

5) for centuries and millenniums

Ex. Il Novecento è stato un secolo di grandi innovazioni. -- The Twentieth century was a time of great innovation.

6) for astronomical names

Ex. Ci sarà vita su Marte? -- Might there be life on Mars?

7) for titles of books, movies etc.

Generally, when the title is made of more than one word, you only capitalize the first one.

Ex. Il visconte dimezzato -- The Cloven Viscount

8) for abbreviations or acronyms

Ex. CONI = comitato olimpico nazionale italiano -- Italian National Olympic Committee

9) for geographical names

Ex. Sono nata a Palermo. -- I was born in Palermo.

10) reverential capitalization

It’s the practice of capitalizing words that refer to a deity or divine being, in cases where the words would not otherwise have been capitalized. The same could be applied to political/authority figures, particularly in a deferential or formal context. It might also mark a distinction between homographs that have a different meaning (e.g., il Paese as in the Italian country, but il paese sulla collina as in the town on the hill).

Ex. Egregio Presidente, Le scrivo da parte dei cittadini. -- Dear Mr. President, I am writing to you on behalf of the citizens.

WARNING! NO capitalization must be applied to:

1) days of the week and months of the year

Ex. Questo sabato c'è una festa. -- There’s a party on Saturday. Mio fratello è nato a marzo. -- My brother was born in March.

2) languages and nationalities

This rule was once only believed to be valid for nationalities used as adjectives, while they were usually capitalized when employed as nouns

Ex. L’estate scorsa ho conosciuto due ragazzi svizzeri. -- Last summer I met two Swiss boys. Si dice che gli Svizzeri siano precisi. -- The Swiss are said to be precise.

Today, the tendency is to never capitalize them. 

Ex. Gli italiani hanno molte tradizioni. -- Italians have many traditions.