A. In Italian, we make most nouns plural by changing their endings.
In the chart below, you can see how the most common endings change to form the plural.
B. Masculine nouns have the following rules and exceptions when forming the plural:
In the chart below, you can see how the most common endings change to form the plural.
Change | Singular | Plural |
| -o --> -i | il ragazzo | i ragazzi |
| -a --> -e | la casa | le case |
| -e --> -i | il giornale / la lezione | i giornali / le lezioni |
B. Masculine nouns have the following rules and exceptions when forming the plural:
- Nouns ending in -co. The formation of the plural for these nouns depends on whether the second-to-last syllable is stressed or not. In the following tables, the italicized letters indicate where the stress in the word is.
Stress is on the syllable preceding -co
parco --> parchi gioco --> giochi tedesco --> tedeschi
Exceptions: greco, nemico (enemy), and porco (swine) all follow the pattern amico --> amici.Stress is on the second syllable preceding -co
medico --> medici meccanico --> meccanici
Exception: carico (load, burden) --> carichi