Masculine and feminine in Italian

The Italian language distinguishes two genders: masculine and feminine.

Be careful! Italian nouns always have a gender (even animals and things).

How to recognize the gender of nouns in Italian

According to gender, we can identify four categories

• masculine in -o

• masculine in -e

• feminine in -a

• feminine in -e

Here some tricks to recognize the gender of nouns ending in -e:

• masculine: -ore, -ale, -ile

• feminine: -ione, -udine, -ice

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Animated beings vs. Inanimated beings

Animated beings

The grammatical gender follows the natural one

• masculine: zio, gatto
                  uncle, cat
• feminine: zia, gatta
                aunt, female cat

Inanimated beings

The grammatical gender is just a language convention

• masculine: tavolo, cappotto
                   table, coat

• feminine: fiaba, maglia
                fairy tale, shirt

Here some tricks to recognize the gender of inanimated beings

Masculine and feminine formation in Italian

A lot of Italian nouns, in particular nouns of animated beings, can have both masculine and feminine forms.

Regular nouns

In general, Italian nouns create the feminine form (or the masculine one) by editing their ending

Irregular nouns

A lot of nouns form their feminine form (or the masculine one) in an irregular way

Complete irregularity

These nouns have two differents words for each gender

genero → nuora
son-in-law → daughter-in-law
dio → dea
god → goddess

Common gender (same form and different article)

These nouns (professions, jobs...) have the same form both for masculine and feminine. Just the article can distinguish the two genders.

(il) cantante → (la) cantante
male singer → female singer

(il) nipote → (la) nipote
nephew/grandson →niece/granddaughter
 

Promiscuous gender (same form and same article)

These nouns have just one form for both genders. Even the article is the same.

(la) vittima
victim

(il) medico
doctor

That works especially with nouns referring to animals. If you want to indicate the female animal, you have to specify it.

(il) leopardo → (il) leopardo femmina
male leopard → female leopard
(la) zebra→ (la) zebra maschio
female zebra → male zebra

The only exception are gatto→gatta (male cat → female cat) and cane → cagna (male dog → female dog)

Suffix changing

These nouns keep their root but they change the suffix in the following way:  -tore → -trice, -e → -essa, -a → -essa

attore → attrice
actor → actress
professore → professoressa
male teacher → female teacher
poeta → poetessa
poet → poetess
 

Change of meaning

These nouns have a different meaning in masculine and feminine forms

(il) buco → (la) buca
hole → pit
(il) baleno → (la) balena
flash → whale