I can put a noun in the plural and choose its article: i ragazzi, gli amici, le amiche, le città.
More than one: -i, -e, and the articles i, gli, le
More than one: -i, -e, and the articles i, gli, le
You need the plural to say “two coffees”, “Marco's friends”, “the keys”.
English adds -s; Italian changes the last vowel: -o → -i (il ragazzo → i ragazzi), -a → -e (la donna → le donne), -e → -i in both masculine and feminine (il giornale → i giornali, la chiave → le chiavi).
The article changes with the word: il → i, masculine lo and l' → gli, feminine la and l' → le. Gli goes before a vowel and before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, y: the same rule for how the word starts as for lo.
The spelling keeps the sound: -co → -chi (il cuoco → i cuochi), -ca → -che (l'amica → le amiche): the h keeps c hard. One exception right away: l'amico → gli amici, where the sound changes to [tʃ] and there's no h.
-cia and -gia drop the i in the plural: l'arancia → le arance.
A word doesn't change if the stress is on the last vowel (la città → le città, il caffè → i caffè) or if it comes from another language (il film → i film, il bar → i bar).
Common mistakes:
• NOT “i amici” → “gli amici”.
• NOT “gli ragazzi” → “i ragazzi”.
• NOT “le amice” → “le amiche”.
• NOT “tre cittàs” → “tre città” (an Italian plural never adds -s).
The plural: three endings
The ending depends on the gender and the last letter of the word.
| Singular | Plural | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -o | -i | il ragazzo → i ragazzi |
| -a | -e | la donna → le donne |
| -e (masc.) | -i | il giornale → i giornali |
| -e (fem.) | -i | la chiave → le chiavi |
Plural articles
The article changes along with the word — by the same rule about how the word starts.
| Singular | Plural | When | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| il | i | before a consonant (masc.) | il ragazzo → i ragazzi |
| lo, l' (masc.) | gli | before a vowel; before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, y | lo zaino → gli zaini; l'amico → gli amici |
| la | le | before a consonant (fem.) | la donna → le donne |
| l' (fem.) | le | before a vowel (fem.) | l'amica → le amiche |
Lesson notes
More than one: -i, -e, and the articles i, gli, le
You need the plural to say “two coffees”, “Marco's friends”, “the keys”.
English adds -s; Italian changes the last vowel: -o → -i (il ragazzo → i ragazzi), -a → -e (la donna → le donne), -e → -i in both masculine and feminine (il giornale → i giornali, la chiave → le chiavi).
The article changes with the word: il → i, masculine lo and l' → gli, feminine la and l' → le. Gli goes before a vowel and before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, y: the same rule for how the word starts as for lo.
The spelling keeps the sound: -co → -chi (il cuoco → i cuochi), -ca → -che (l'amica → le amiche): the h keeps c hard. One exception right away: l'amico → gli amici, where the sound changes to [tʃ] and there's no h.
-cia and -gia drop the i in the plural: l'arancia → le arance.
A word doesn't change if the stress is on the last vowel (la città → le città, il caffè → i caffè) or if it comes from another language (il film → i film, il bar → i bar).
Common mistakes:
• NOT “i amici” → “gli amici”.
• NOT “gli ragazzi” → “i ragazzi”.
• NOT “le amice” → “le amiche”.
• NOT “tre cittàs” → “tre città” (an Italian plural never adds -s).