Learn Italian: A Guide To Learning The Basics of A New Language (2015)

Chapter 17. Plural of Nouns

Most Italian nouns form their plural by changing the ending of the singular noun. However, there are other ways by which a noun may form its plural. There are nouns that stay the same regardless of number and these nouns are called invariable nouns. There are nouns that are called defective nouns because they have no singular or plural form. Likewise, some nouns have more than one way to form their singular or plural and are called nomi sovrabbondanti.

1. Forming the Plural by Changing the Ending

In general, the plural form is derived by changing the ending of the noun’s singular form.

For nouns that end in -a, the plural is formed by changing the ending to –i for masculine nouns and to –e for feminine nouns.

Examples:

Nouns that end in –o change into plural by changing the ending to –i for both masculine and feminine.

Examples:

Nouns that end in –e change into plural by changing the ending to –i for the masculine and feminine forms.

Examples:

While these rules are applicable to many nouns, there are some exceptions:

1. Nouns with –ca and –ga ending

Nouns that end in –ca form their plural by changing the ending to –chi if the noun is masculine and to –che if the noun is feminine.

Examples:

Nouns ending in –ga form their plural by changing the ending to –ghi in masculine nouns and to –ghe in feminine nouns.

Examples:

2. Nouns that end in –gia and –cia form their plural in one of the following ways:

1. If the “i” in –gia or –cia is tonic (stressed), the plural is formed by dropping the –a and changing the ending to –gie and –cie.

Examples:  

2. If the “i” is atonic (unstressed), maintain the “i” if –cia or –gia are immediately preceded by a vowel. However, if the consonant is preceded by a consonant, the letter “i” should be suppressed.

Examples:  

Take note that to avoid confusion, audacia takes only one plural form, audacie. In addition, camicia only has camicie for its plural while ferocia only takes the plural ferocie.

3. Nouns that end in "-io"

All nouns that end in –io form their plural under these rule:

1. If the –i is tonic/stressed, they plural is formed by changing the ending to –ìi.

Examples:  

2. If –i is atonic, the plural is formed by changing the noun’s ending to –i.

Examples:  

4. Nouns that become feminine when plural

Some masculine nouns that end in –o become feminine when changed to plural.

Example:

5. Irregular Plurals

There are a few nouns which change their root when expressed in the plural.

Examples

Nouns that End in -co and -go

Italian nouns ending in –co and –go are the most challenging nouns when it comes to plural formation. There are simply too many exceptions to existing guidelines and new learners are encouraged to refer to a dictionary to familizarize themselves with the plural forms of these nouns.

There are two rules of thumb to follow in forming the plurals of nouns with –co and –go endings:

1. If the stress falls on the second to the last (penultimate) syllable, the plural is formed by changing –co and –go to –chi and ghi respectively. Words stressed on the penultimate syllables are called parole piane.

2. If the stress falls on the third to the last syllable, the plural is formed by replacing -co with –ci and –go with –gi. Words stressed on the third to the last syllables are called parole sdrucciole.

Parole Piane

There are a great number of exceptions to this rule but the most noteworthy are amici, porci, greci, and nemici.

Parole Sdrucciole

There are likewise many exceptions to this rule but the nouns incarichi, valichi, abachi, strascichi, carichi, and abachi are the most notable.

2. Invariable Nouns

A large number of Italian nouns form their plural differently from other nouns and take the same form in singular and plural:

Nouns that end with –i

Monosyllabic nouns:  

Nouns that end in a vowel with accent

Nouns derived from foreign languages

Feminine nouns that end with –o

Masculine neologism that ends with –o

Feminine nouns that end with –ie

3. Defective nouns (nomi difettivi)

Some nouns always take the singular and have no plural form while some nouns are always in the plural form. For this reason, these nouns are categorized as defectives.

Singularia Tantum (Nouns that appear only in the singular form)

1. Nouns that designate metals, substances, chemical elements, products, and materials

Examples:

2. Abstract nouns that denote state, quality, or action:

Some abstract nouns have plural forms but have different meaning. La bellezaa means beauty in the singular but its plural form, le bellezze, means beautiful places or lovely women.

3. Names of diseases

4. Nouns that names unique phenomena and objects

5. Names of months

gennaio (January), febbraio (February), Marzo (March), aprile (April), etc.

6. Nouns with –ismo suffix and nouns pertaining to the sciences

7. Proper names

Roma (Rome), Italia (Italy), Marie, John

Pluralia tantum (Nouns that appear only in the plural form)

1. Nouns that refer to things consisting of two similar components:

Examples    

2. Nouns that refer to a group of things of similar kind:

Examples    

3. Some nouns derived from Latin.

Examples    

4. Nomi sovrabbondandi (Nouns wih two plurals and/or two singulars)

In Italian, there are some nouns with two forms of singular, two forms of plural, and two forms of both singular and plural.

1. Nouns with double singular forms

Nouns with two singular forms are masculine and can end in –iero or –iere. The –iere ending is no longer used in today’s common language but may still be found in literature.

2. Nouns with double plural forms (separate plural form for masculine and feminine)

Nouns with two plural forms can be grouped into two separate classes based on what their plurals denote:

1. Double plural forms with different meanings

2. Double plural forms with the same meaning

There are only a few nouns of this type and following are a few of the most common ones:

3. Nouns with two forms for singular and plural

There are Italian nouns with two forms each for the singular and plural and they have the same meaning.