NOMI

Buongiorno!! Today we are learning some grammar rules about names. 

In Italian language names are divided into two genres: masculine and feminine. The majority of masculine names end with -o and the biggest part of feminine names end with -a. 

All names referred to females are feminine and all names referred to males are masculine.

For instance il maestro (=the teacher) is a male and la maestra  (=the teacher) is a female.

Names referred to animals or objects can be masculine or feminine.

For instance: il gatto (=the cat) is masculine - la mela (=the apple) is feminine. 

There are names ending with -e. They can be masculine or feminine.

For example: il pesce (=the fish) is masculine and la carne (=the meat) is feminine. 

In order to remember the genre, I suggest to memorize the names together with the articles:  il and lo are always referred to masculine names, la is referred to feminine ones. Later we will see more about articles. 

The plural form of masculine names ending with -o is with -i. To make the plural of feminine names anding with -a, you have to put -e. Names which have the singular form ending with -e form the plural with the letter -i. Later we will see more about plural forms. 

For example, the plural form of il vino (=the wine) is i vini, the plural form of la cena(=the dinner) is le cene. Plural of il padre (=the father) is i padri, for la madre (=the mother) it is le madri.

So, here are the basic rules for names in Italian language, but there are also a lot of exceptions. If you want to know more about names, book some lessons with me or ask for my audio files.