How to make nouns plural (Italian)

Here are the rules:

1. Almost all masculine nouns that end in "-o" will drop off the "-o" and add an "-i" to make plural

ex. Il Fratello (singular) = I Fratelli (plural)

The Brother = The Brothers

2. Almost all feminine nouns that end in "-a" will drop off the "-a" and add an "-e" to make plural.

ex. La Sorella (singular) = Le Sorelle (plural)

The Sister = The Sisters

3. Foreign words in the Italian language do not change in the plural (only the definite articles change)

ex. Il Film (singular) = I Film (plural)

The Movie = The Movies

4. Words that end in accented vowels, do not change in the plural (only the definite articles change)

ex. L'università (singular) = Le università (plural)

The university = The universities

5. There are certain masculine nouns that end in "-a", however, since they are masculine they will end with "-i" on the plural form

ex. Il poeta (singular) = I poeti

The poet = The poets

6. Other nouns that in the singular are used for both masculine and feminine change in the plural

(All nouns ending in "-ista" are usually unisex - only the definite articles show you the sex)

ex. Il giornalista (masculine/singular)

= I giornalisti (masculine/plural)

ex. La giornalista (feminine/singular)

= Le giornaliste (feminine/plural)

The journalist = The journalists

7. All nouns whether feminine or masculine that end with "-e" will end with "-i" in the plural

ex. Il padre (masculine/singular) = I padri (masculine/plural)

The father = The fathers

ex. La madre (feminine/singular) = Le madri (feminine/plural)

The mother = The mothers

8. Letter combination matters in Italian! There a certain letters that cannot be next to each other because the sound will change. This rule must be applied when making nouns plural as well. Nouns that end in

"-ca" or "-ga" become "-che" or "-chi" / "-ghe" or "-ghi" in the plural, depending on the gender:

ex. Il monarca (masculine/singular)

= I monarchi (masculine/plural)

The monarchy = The monarchies

ex. La basilica (feminine/singular)

= Le basiliche

The basilica = The basilicas

9. Lastly, there are some nouns that are just plain weird and you just want to scream "WHY, WHY, just, WHY??" (thankfully, there are not a lot of them)

ex. Il braccio (singular/masculine) = Le braccia (feminine/plural)

(Yeah, the sex changes in the plural....I know, messed up)

The arm = The arms

ex. Il labbro (singular/masculine = Le labbra (feminine/plural)

The lip = The lips

Here is a game to practice!!