Basic grammar 1

Question 1

Gender of words

Answer 1

O : masculine
A: feminine
E: either

il/la cantante
il/la cliente
il/la parente
il/l’inglese

Some nouns ending in -a and referring to persons are masculine when they refer to a male and feminine when they refer to a female :

il/la collega
l’atleta
il/la pianista
Exc: la persona, la guida

Exc:
il cinema 
il papà
il problema
l'auto
la foto 
la mano

Some nouns end in -i. The vast majority are feminine, but there are some exceptions :
l’albi
lo sci

Foreign nouns, unless they refer to a female, are generally masculine :
il bar
il camion

Question 2

Gender of words part II

Answer 2

The following rules can help in determining the gender of nouns :
- all months of the year and days of the wee are masculine, apart from domenica, which is feminine
All names of towns and cities are feminine, apart from Il Cairo
All names of languages are masculine
Names of countries are normally feminine when they end in -a and masculine when they end in any other letter

Question 3

Plurals

Answer 3

Masculine nouns ending in -o, and all nouns ending in -e –> end in -i in the plural

il treno –> i treni
la notte –> le notti
la moglie –> le mogli*
Nouns ending in -ie have only one -i in the plural.

Nouns ending in -io ave onlyone i in the plural. But if the -i is stresses (-io), the plural has two (-ii):
il bacio –> i baci
l’inizio –> gli inizi
lo zio –> gli zii (uncle)

Feminine nouns ending in -a take -e in the plural:
la sorella – le sorelle
la sera –> le sere
Masculine nouns ending in -a take -i in the plural:
il problema .–> i problemi

When a noun ending in -a denotes a person, its plural ending dependes on wether it is masculine or feminine. If it refers to a male, the plural ends in -i, if it refers to a female, the plural ends in -e.
il colega –> i colleghi
la collega –> le colleghe

Question 4

Gender of words part III

Answer 4

nouns ending in -i do not chaneg in the plural:
l’analisi - le analisi
a crisi –> le crisi
Foreign nouns, and nouns stressed on the last vowel, do not canege in the plural:
il bar –> i bar
lo sport -> gli sport
la città –> le città

A number of nouns are irregular in the plural because they are abbreviations :
la radio –> le radio
la moto –> le moto
il cinema –> i cinema

Question 5

Gender of words - spelling

Answer 5

Nouns ending in -ca or -ga always add h (-che or -ghe), in order to keep the hard sound of c and g in the plural.
l’amica –> le amiche

Nouns ending in -co and go normally add h (-chi or -ghi) and keep the hard sound, but some nouns change the sound of the c and g in the plural. Check in a dictionary

il gioco –> i giochi
il parco - i parchi
il medico –> i medici

Nouns ending in -cia or -gia keep the i in the plural (-cie or -gie) when the i is stessed, or when c or g is preceded by a vowel. But if -cia or - gia is preceded by a conssonant the i is lost in the plural.
la famaccia –> le farmacie
lla spiaggia –> le spiagge (beaches)

Question 6

Verb conjugations regular

Answer 6

ARE

• o
• i
• a
• iamo
• ate
• ano

ERE

• o
• i
• e
• iamo
• ete
• ono

IRE

• o
• i
• e
• iamo
• ite
• ono