Italian All-in-One For Dummies (98 page)

-o:
letto
(
bed
),
libro
(
book
),
giorno
(
day
),
gatto
(
male cat
),
buco
(
hole
)

A consonant:
autobus
(
bus
),
sport
(
sport
),
bar
(
bar
),
chef
(
chef; cook
),
zar
(
czar
)

However, some nouns ending in
-o
are feminine, such as
auto
(
automobile
),
radio
(
radio
),
mano
(
hand
), and
moto
(
motorbike
). So are some foreign words, especially when they translate an Italian word that has the same meaning, such as
star dello spettacolo
(
show business star
).

Feminine nouns often end in

-a:
barca
(
boat
),
ora
(
hour
),
pianta
(
plant, tree
)

-i:
analisi
(
analysis
),
crisi
(
crisis
),
tesi
(
thesis
),
diagnosi
(
diagnosis
)

-tà
or
-tù:
bontà
(
goodness
),
virtù
(
virtue
),
verità
(
truth
)

Some nouns ending in
-a
are masculine because they derive from classical Greek, such as
problema
(
problem
),
tema
(
theme
), and
programma
(
program
).

Some words have a masculine and a feminine version, with different meanings. For example,
il buco
(
hole
),
la buca
(
pit; hole in golf
);
il foglio
(
sheet of paper
),
la foglia
(
leaf
);
il fine
(
aim; goal
),
la fine
(
end
);
il capitale
(
financial capital
),
la capitale
(
capital city
).

Both masculine and feminine nouns can end in
-e;
the only general rule is that usually words ending in
-ione
are feminine, as in
direzione
(
direction
) or
spiegazione
(
explanation
), while words ending in
-ore
are masculine, as in
direttore
(
director
) or
produttore
(
producer
). For the rest, no specific rule exists — for example,
sole
(
sun
) is masculine, but
notte
(
night
) is feminine — so just have a dictionary on hand until you're more familiar with noun gender.

Sorting nouns into classes

When it comes to gender, you find three classes of nouns in Italian:

Nouns that are gender-specific:
If the individual in question is male, you use one word —
il padre
(
father
) — if it's female, use another word —
la madre
(
mother
).

Nouns that can move from masculine to feminine:
The masculine is the default gender, so you tend to look up a noun in the masculine and then see whether you make a feminine noun out of it — for example,
lo zio
(
uncle
) becomes
la zia
(
aunt
). In real life, of course, you may encounter a noun in the feminine first and then wonder whether it has a masculine version. It usually does, but the masculine may be really different from the feminine; for example,
la dottoressa
(
female doctor/graduate
) doesn't become il dottoresso but rather
il dottore
(
male doctor/graduate
).

Nouns that are used for males and females but don't change:
La guida
(
guide
) is feminine, but it's used for men, too;
il soprano
(
soprano
) is masculine, but it's used for women.

Gender-specific nouns

Some nouns are gender-specific — that is, you use different words to refer to masculine and feminine variations of the noun. See
Table 2-5
for a sampling of these nouns.

Table 2-5 Nouns that Indicate the Gender of the Individual