Ciao a tutti.In a previous lesson we saw how

Valentina+c

06/23/2009 - 04:58

Ciao a tutti.

In a previous lesson we saw how to recognize when a word is masculine or feminine:

Italian lesson - is it masculine or feminine?

Now we will see how to make the feminine of masculine words.

Attention: there are words that are always masculine and words that are always feminine:

la mano (fem.), la giuria (fem.)

il prato (masc.), il fiore (masc.)

Words whose gender change, are words related either to animals or to people and their professions or activity.

a. ANIMALS

- In same cases we only change the ending:

il gatto / la gatta; - the cat

- Some have a standard version and the gender is specified adding the word "maschio / femmina" next to the noun. examples are:

il serpente maschio / il serpente femmina - the snake

la volpe / il maschio della volpe - the fox

- Some other words have different version for the masculine and the feminine:

la vacca / il toro; (the term "vacca" (cow) is sometimes considered as to be vulgar, but in reality it is how we call the feminine of the bull; you can translate "cow" with "mucca" when talking to kids.)

il maiale / la scrofa - pig / sow

il gallo / la gallina - cock / hen

b. PEOPLE

- Words ending with -tore change their suffix with -trice:

l'attore / l'attrice - actor / actrice

l'autore / l'autrice - the author

lo scrittore / la scrittrice - the writer

l'investigatore / l'investigatrice - the detective.

dittatore / dittatrice - the dictator

An exception is: il dottore - la dottoressa - the doctor

- Some words which indicate a profession or a title change their ending with - essa (there are very few):

il conte / la contessa - the count / countess

il barone / la baronessa - the baron / the baroness

but: il re / la regina - the king / the queen

il poeta / la poetessa - the poet

il professore / la professoressa - the teacher

il leone / la leonessa

l'avvocato / l'avvocatessa

but: il sindaco / la sindaca (or la Signora Rossi, sindaco di Roma) - the mayor ("la sindachessa" may seem to be offensive)

- For those words related to professions which don't have a feminine version, so we only change the article to indicate if we are talking about a man or a woman:

il cantante / la cantante - the singer

il musicista; la musicista - the musician

il barista / la barista - the barman

- Pay attention to those words that have different meaning depending on the gender:

the tree of a fruit is always masculin: il melo, il ciliegio, l'ulivo, il mandorlo, il pesco

the fruit that we take is: la mela, la ciliegia, l'oliva, la mandorla, la pesca

but una pianta di fragola (not il fragolo) - la fragola.

- Some other nouns are always feminine, even if we are talking about a man:

la guardia - the guard

la sentinella - the sentry

la spia - the informer

There may be other situation where you feel stuck and cannot figure out which is the feminine or the masculine, and if the feminine version even exist. It's hard to make a complete list of them. So, I'm available for any of your doubts do be solved.

Someone said: "Chiedi, e ti sarà dato"

Topic

Italian Language

Comment

Thanks Valentina- am finding your lessons really useful. Are we allowed requests? If so I would like to know how to deal with mi piace or as I hear more often .......a mi piace. Am not sure how you form this and also the different persons (he, she etc)ThanksHelen

Hi Helenall of your requests help me finding a new and useful topic for the next lesson, and make you discover things that you need to know when learning Italian.Actually, "Mi piace" - translated as "I like" - is something that may cause troubles due to the different syntax used.I think I will use it for my next lesson. Thank you anda presto!

Grazie mille Valentina..................all and any tips will help me.............I findit VERY frustrating that I cannot be my 'normal' chatty self when surrounded by Italians! When I DO 'have a go'..............I have quite a few words in my mental vocabulary BUT I miss (and mess up) badly the little joiny up words, is there a SIMPLE rule upon which I can build? Si end up saying things likes of tutt aposto?.....Il tempo e molte bene eh?..............full stop !!! The other issue is when I DO make contact, the other chap(or chap-ess) may respond in dialetto!!!!!!!!!! Tough tough tough!! Thanks for your help though!

Yeah, I felt the same when I first started to talk with English native speakers!It's really frustrating - especially for those like us "chiaccheroni" (chatties) - being unable to express our thoughts!!You know, I was just thinking to start a thread in Italian to let people talk and learn new things ... would it work? What do you think? Cosa ne pensi?RE your question about a rule to follow, I think I'll dedicate a lesson to that topic. It's really important to put words in the right order and I hope I'll give you good indications.Buona giornata e alla prossima!