Nomi: genere e numero
Nouns: gender and number
Name: _________________
Date: ______________
Nomi: genere e numero
Holey Notes Part 2:
How do we know if a word is
male or female in Italian?
 What does singular/plural mean?
What are the changes we have to make for
plural nouns?
 You can find more on
textbook pages 29 and 30!


Che cos’e’ un nome?(What is a
noun?)
A noun is a person, place, or thing.
Esempi italiani: Silvio, ragazzo, ufficio, libro,
Silvia, ragazza, banca, pizza
English examples: Paul, student, classroom,
Mary, child, office, computer
In italiano, nomi hanno un genere.
(In Italian, nouns have a gender.)
Cosa significa genere? (What does gender mean?)
Significa maschile o femminile.
(It means masculine or feminine.)
What has gender in English?
living things
What has gender in Italian?
living and nonliving things  EVERYTHING!
What are our endings?
A word with an a at the end is feminine.
A word with an o at the end is masculine.
A word with an e at the end can be feminine or
masculine.
A  feminine
O  masculine
E  feminine or masculine
What about OTHER endings?
What about words like film, bar, scooter, tram...?
You just have to memorize them!
Here’s a trick: nouns ending in a consonant are
usually masculine.
Nomi Plurali (Plural Nouns)
Nouns have a gender and a number. Their last
letters depend on if they are masculine or
feminine AND if they are singular or plural.
Singular (singolare) means there is just one of
the person/place/thing.
Plural (plurale) means there is more than one of
the person/place/thing.
Ending Changes
Feminine nouns end in a. When there is more
than one feminine person/place/thing, the word
ends in e.
A E
Masculine nouns end in o. When there is more
than one masculine person/place/thing, the
word ends in i.
OI
Ending changes
People/places/things that end in e change to i.
Esempi (Examples):
Lezione  lezioni
Regione  regioni
Ospedale  ospedali
Ending Changes
Words that don’t end in a, o, or e don’t change.
Esempi (Examples):
1 film  2 film
1 bar  2 bar
1 scooter  2 scooter
Ending Changes
Words that end in letters that have accent marks
over them don’t change either.
Esempi (Examples):
1 città  2 città
1 attività  200 attività
1 università  2,000 università
1 caffè  20,000 caffè
1 tè  200,000 tè
How do I remember all this?
Words that have accents over the last letter or
end in a consonant don’t change at all!
How do I remember o  i, a e, ei?
Think about the problem Miss Wood has at
home! …
Un problema
Old Italian ants eat everything in sight!
Old Italian
Ants  Eat
Everything  In sight!
They are eating up all my food!!
AIUTOOO!!!!
Pratichiamo!
1 treno + 1 treno = ?
2 treni
1 pizza + 1 pizza = ?
2 pizze
1 bicicletta + 1 bicicletta = ?
2 biciclette
Pratichiamo!
1 ristorante + 1 ristorante = ?
2 ristoranti
1 lezione + 1 lezione = ?
2 lezioni
1 automobile + 1 automobile =?
2 automobili