In the last article we looked at nouns which describe professions, and in particular those words that  don’t change their ending from masculine to feminine, i.e. professions ending in –ista such as farmacista (pharmacist, chemist), and professions ending in –nte such as insegnante (teacher). Today we are going to look at two more main groups of professions which can be a bit confusing.

1. Words ending in ‘–ere’

There are many professions which end in –ere in the masculine singular, e.g. cameriere (waiter), infermiere (nurse), ragioniere (accountant). In the feminine singular these nouns change their ending  to –era, e.g. cameriera (waitress); infermiera (nurse), ragioniera (accountant): Giorgio fa l’infermiere (Giorgio is a nurse), Laura fa l’infermiera (Laura is a nurse).  The plural of these nouns is regular, i.e. –eri for the masculine, e.g. camerieri (waiters), infermieri (nurses), ragionieri (accountants), and in –ere for the feminine, e.g. cameriere (waitresses), infermiere (nurses), ragioniere (accountants): Giorgio e Carlo fanno gli infermieri (Giorgio and Carlo are nurses), Laura e Giovanna fanno le infermiere (Laura and Giovanna are nurses).

N.B. an exception is ingegnere (engineer) which doesn’t change between masculine and feminine: Claudio fa l’ingegnere (Claudio is an engineer), and Lucia fa l’ingegnere (Lucia is an engineer).

2. Words ending in ‘–tore’

An important group of professions has the ending –tore in the masculine singular, e.g. scrittore (writer), attore (actor), direttore (director). These words will normally change to –trice in the feminine singular, e.g. scrittrice (writer), attrice (actress), direttrice (director): Andrea Camilleri è il mio scrittore preferito (Andrea Camilleri is my favourite male writer), Dacia Maraini è la mia scrittrice preferita (Dacia Maraini is my favourite female writer). The plurals are regular, i.e. the masculine ends in –tori: scrittori (writers), attori (actors), direttori (directors), whilst the feminine plural ends in –trici: scrittrici (writers), attrici (actresses), direttrici (directors). Andrea Camilleri e Carlo Lucarelli sono scrittori di gialli (Andrea Camilleri and Carlo Lucarelli write detective stories), Dacia Maraini e Oriana Fallaci sono le mie scrittrici preferite (Dacia Maraini and Oriana Fallaci are my favourite female writers).

N.B. dottore/dottori (doctor/doctors) changes to dottoressa/dottoresse (female doctor/doctors) in the female.

3. Professioni femminili “moderne”

There are some professions that up until 20 to 30 years ago were uncommon or even prohibited for women. I remember that about 20 years ago, when Italy had its first female vigile (traffic warden), there were big discussions on the TV about whether she should be called a vigile or a vigilessa. It was believed that the ending –essa was inappropriate, as it was generally considered derogatory, therefore the title should still be vigile, and only the article would change, i.e. il vigile (the male traffic warden), la vigile (the female traffic warden). However, there is still a lot of confusion about many job titles, in particular in the political field, e.g. sindaco (mayor), presidente (president), ministro (minister). Here in Pontremoli we have a lady mayor for the first time in history, so some people call her la sindaco, others la sindaca, and some even call her la sindachessa. Our Mayoress, however, signs her letters il sindaco.

This gender confusion is also very common amongst journalists when they have to write articles about politicians. A couple of days ago I saw an article in Il Corriere della Sera (probably our most important national newspaper) about Annamaria Cancellieri, the Italian minister of Justice. In one paragraph alone she was given two different titles: “Così il ministro della Giustizia Annamaria Cancellieri ha risposto alla domanda ….. ammette infine la ministra della Giustizia” … oh well, better safe than sorry!