Firstly, well done all of you who had a go at our Pluralise! quiz. In today’s article we’ll give you the correct answers together with an explanation and analysis.

Singular: my grandfather had a cow and a sheep = mio nonno aveva una mucca e una pecora
Plural: my grandfather had two cows and three sheep = mio nonno aveva due mucche e tre pecore
This one is fairly straightforward. The main thing to be aware of here is that mucca needs an ‘h’ in the plural: mucche

Singular: Lucia’s daughter is one year old = la figlia di Lucia ha un anno
Plural: Lucia’s daughter is two years old =  la figlia di Lucia ha due anni
Once again, very simple, we just substitute the masculine singular ending ‘o’ in anno for an ‘i’ to make the plural anni

Singular: last night there was a cat on the roof = questa notte c’era un gatto sul tetto
Plural: last night there were two cats on the roof = questa notte c’erano due gatti sul tetto
Here, c’era (there was) becomes c’erano (there were). The rest is simple: gatto (singular) becomes gatti (plural)

Singular: I’ve hurt my finger = mi sono fatto male al dito
Plural: I’ve hurt my fingers = mi sono fatto male alle dita
This is a tricky one. Like many parts of the body, finger changes gender in the plural. Not only that but it also uses the typical feminine singular ‘a’ ending instead of ‘e’ as you might have expected. Hence il dito (the finger), le dita (the fingers)

A common irregular plural is le mura = the town walls ( feminine plural). Above: Le Mura di Montagnana. Photo. (CC)

Singular: how many apples are left? … there’s only one left = quante mele ci sono rimaste? … ce n’è rimasta una sola
Plural: how many apples are left? … there are only two left = quante mele ci sono rimaste? …  ce ne sono rimaste due sole
I know, ne is nasty! In fact I recommend that you take a look at this article on the topic. Let’s analyse the above, beginning with the singular:
ci (there) becomes ce (there) when it precedes ne for purely phonetic reasons;
ne translates as ‘of it’ or ‘of them’;
Then we have è (is), and when we put ne and è together we need to drop the e in ne and replace it with an apostrophe for the sake of alliteration.
Combining the above gives us ce n’è (literally: there of them is)
Now, in the plural we simply need to change the è (is) for sono (are) to get ce ne sono (literally: there of them are).
To complete the pluralisation we need to make sure that the rest of the sentence agrees in number and gender. So: rimasta = left (feminine singular) becomes rimaste = left (feminine plural) and sola = only (feminine singular) becomes sole = only (feminine plural)

Singular: how many bananas were left? … there was only one left = quante banane c’erano rimaste? … ce n’era rimasta una sola
Plural: how many bananas were left? … there were only two left = quante banane c’erano rimaste? … ce n’erano rimaste due sole
Easy, right? Well, maybe a bit easier if we follow the explanation above. In this case ce n’era (literally: there of them was) becomes ce n’erano (literally: there of them were)

Singular: I’ve planted a grapevine in my garden = ho piantato una vite nel mio giardino
Plural : I’ve planted six grapevines in my garden = ho piantato sei viti nel mio
Words which end in an ‘e’ in the singular use an ‘i’ in the plural, hence: la vite (singular) le viti (plural)

Singular: how disgusting, there’s a cockroach on the floor! = che schifo, c’è uno scarafaggio per terra
Plural: how disgusting, there are cockroaches on the floor! = che schifo, ci sono gli scarafaggi per terra
Here c’è (there is) becomes ci sono (there are) and uno scarafaggio (a cockroach) becomes gli scarafaggi  (the cockroaches). The important thing to note here is that in order to sound correct we need to put the masculine plural article gli before scarafaggi

Singular: have you seen my shoe? = hai visto la mia scarpa?
Plural: have you seen my shoes? = hai visto le mie scarpe
Important to note here is that the possessive adjective mia (my, feminine singular) becomes mie (my, feminine plural). An example of this in the masculine would be: il mio libro (my book, masculine singular), i miei libri (my books, masculine plural)

I hope you found this little exercise useful. If you still need help please leave a comment. Alla prossima.