Italian 路 Chapter 2 路 Lesson 14 路 Grammar primer
Plurals and gender: -o, -a, -e
Most nouns announce their gender in their last letter and their plural in the vowel that replaces it. Then a masculine noun ends in -a.
The short version
Italian plurals swap a vowel, never add an -s
The -o of a masculine noun becomes -i, the -a of a feminine noun becomes -e, and the -e of either becomes -i. Nothing is ever added, so the -s habit from English, Spanish and French has to go. Nouns ending in a stressed vowel or a consonant do not change at all.
il libro, i libri; la casa, le case
Il problema is masculine, whatever the -a says
A family of nouns in -ma came from Greek neuters and are masculine in Italian, so they take il and make their plural in -i. Problema, programma and sistema all belong to it. The mirror-image trap is la mano, feminine despite its -o, with the plural le mani.
il problema, i problemi
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Lesson 14 of 24 in this chapter