Learn about grammatical gender in the Italian language
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Intro |
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| Michael: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Ofelia: And how do I know the gender of a noun? |
| Michael: At ItalianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen Lee is at a flower shop with her friend, Anna Mancini. She says to her friend, |
| "A rose and a lily." |
| Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| Anna Mancini: Solo una rosa e un giglio? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| Michael: "A rose and a lily." |
| Anna Mancini: Solo una rosa e un giglio? |
| Michael: "Only a rose and a lily?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In Italian, just like in many other Latin-based languages, all nouns have a gender. They can be masculine or feminine, and the same is true of plural nouns. |
| Michael: We can use general guidelines to establish whether a noun is masculine or feminine. If a singular noun ends in an "o" and the plural form of the same noun ends in an "i," the noun is usually masculine. Like the word for "lily," |
| Ofelia: il giglio, i gigli. |
| [SLOW] il giglio, i gigli. |
| Michael: If a singular noun ends in an "a" and the plural form of the same noun ends in an "e," the noun is usually feminine. Like the word for "rose," |
| Ofelia: la rosa, le rose. |
| [SLOW] la rosa, le rose. |
| Michael: Be careful, though. These are just general guidelines, so as always, there are exceptions. For example, |
| Ofelia: la moto, [SLOW] la moto, |
| Michael: meaning "bike," is feminine, and |
| Ofelia: il problema, [SLOW] il problema, |
| Michael: meaning "the problem," is masculine. |
| Michael: To take things a step further, there's a third group of nouns, which, in the singular form, ends in "e" and, in the plural form, ends in "i." These nouns can be either masculine or feminine, and the best way to learn the gender of these nouns is simply through memorization and repetition. |
| Michael: One more thing. Any other word that modifies the noun, like articles and adjectives, also takes on a gender to match the gender of the noun. For example; The article for singular masculine nouns, is |
| Ofelia: il, [SLOW] il |
| Michael: as in |
| Ofelia: il bicchiere, [SLOW] il bicchiere. |
| Michael: And for singular feminine nouns, we use |
| Ofelia: la, [SLOW] la, |
| Michael: as in |
| Ofelia: la nave, [SLOW] la nave. |
| Michael: It's that simple. Learn the general guidelines for noun endings that help dictate a noun's gender, as well as the modifying variables, like a noun's articles. Then, little by little, begin to study and memorize the nouns that don't follow the standard gender rules. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Karen Lee says, "A rose and a lily." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Karen Lee: Una rosa e un giglio. |
| Michael: And do you remember how Anna Mancini asks "Only a rose and a lily?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Anna Mancini: Solo una rosa e un giglio? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Anna Mancini: Solo una rosa e un giglio? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Anna Mancini: Solo una rosa e un giglio? |
Outro |
| Michael: Great job. Now you know how to use gender in Italian. That's all there is to it! |
| Be sure to download the lesson notes for this lesson at ItalianPod101.com — and move on to the next lesson! |
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