Make sure your nouns agree with everything else

One of the things I really enjoy about learning a new language is the way it challenges you to shift the way your brain works.

As a native English speaker and until I started learning German as a high schooler, I conceived the world in English. It was the house, the boy and the sun.

It was a substantial paradigm shift, then, to incorporate noun genders when speaking of das Haus, der Junge and die Sonne.

Italian has some great wrinkles in it like this, which of course include noun genders, but also getting noun endings to agree with the rest of the sentence. As I've tackled elementary lessons, I've found this to be challenging and a great exercise for the 'ol brain.

So, to help me learn, here's how noun endings work in Italian.

In Italian, ensuring that noun endings agree with other words in a sentence is a key aspect of grammar. Italian nouns, adjectives, articles, and pronouns must agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). Here’s a breakdown of how this works:

Gender Agreement

Masculine Nouns - Usually end in -o (singular) or -i (plural).

  • Example:
    • Il ragazzo alto (The tall boy) – singular masculine.
    • I ragazzi alti (The tall boys) – plural masculine.

Feminine Nouns - Usually end in -a (singular) or -e (plural).

  • Example:
    • La ragazza alta (The tall girl) – singular feminine.
    • Le ragazze alte (The tall girls) – plural feminine.

Number Agreement

Nouns must agree with the article, adjectives and pronouns in number:

  • Singular:
    • Un libro interessante (An interesting book) – libro (book) is singular, so the article un and adjective interessante must also be singular.
  • Plural:
    • Dei libri interessanti (Some interesting books) – libri (books) is plural, so the article dei and adjective interessanti are plural as well.

Agreement with Adjectives

Adjectives must match the noun in both gender and number:

  • Masculine Singular - un uomo alto (a tall man)
  • Feminine Singular - una donna alta (a tall woman)
  • Masculine Plural - due uomini alti (two tall men)
  • Feminine Plural - due donne alte (two tall women)

Articles

Articles in Italian must also agree in gender and number with the nouns they accompany:

  • Masculine Singular - il ragazzo (the boy), uno studente (a student)
  • Feminine Singular - la ragazza (the girl), una studentessa (a female student)
  • Masculine Plural - i ragazzi (the boys), dei libri (some books)
  • Feminine Plural - le ragazze (the girls), delle studentesse (some female students)

5. Pronouns

Pronouns must agree in gender and number with the nouns they replace:

  • Masculine Singular - Lui è felice (He is happy).
  • Feminine Singular - Lei è felice (She is happy).
  • Masculine Plural - Loro sono felici (They are happy - masculine or mixed group).
  • Feminine Plural - Loro sono felici (They are happy - feminine group).

Let's practice two more

  • La casa bianca è grande. (The white house is big.)
  • Le case bianche sono grandi. (The white houses are big.)
  • Il libro interessante è lungo. (The interesting book is long.)
  • I libri interessanti sono lunghi. (The interesting books are long.)

Idiom of the day

Avere le mani bucate.

Literally, "Having holes in ones hands." You would say this about someone who spends money too easily.