{"id":84,"date":"2009-01-30T14:13:59","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T18:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=84"},"modified":"2009-01-30T14:13:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T18:13:59","slug":"maschile-o-femminile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/maschile-o-femminile\/","title":{"rendered":"Maschile o Femminile"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most confusing aspects of Italian for English speakers is trying to get to grips with the gender of words. This is further complicated by he fact that we don\u2019t use the letter \u2018s\u2019 to pluralize but \u2018i\u2019, or \u2018e\u2019 depending on the gender of the word. Therefore constructing a sentence can be a real minefield if you\u2019re unsure whether the words that you want to use are masculine or feminine.<\/span><\/p>\n

This becomes<\/span> even more confusing with words that sound the same but change their meaning depending on their gender. The following is a list of useful everyday words that do just that, obviously those preceded by il<\/strong> are masculine and those with la<\/strong> are feminine. Eccoli<\/strong> (here they are):<\/span><\/p>\n

il foglio<\/strong> = the sheet of paper\u00a0 –\u00a0 la foglia<\/strong> = the leaf (plant)<\/span><\/p>\n

il filo<\/strong> = the thread\/wire\u00a0 –\u00a0 la fila<\/strong> = the cue\/row<\/span><\/p>\n

il testo<\/strong> = the text\u00a0 –\u00a0 la testa<\/strong> = the head<\/span><\/p>\n

il gambo<\/strong> = the (plant) stalk\u00a0 –\u00a0 la gamba<\/strong> = the leg<\/span><\/p>\n

il posto<\/strong> = the place\u00a0 –\u00a0 la posta<\/strong> = the post (mail)<\/span><\/p>\n

il fronte<\/strong> = the front\u00a0 –\u00a0 la fronte<\/strong> = the forehead<\/span><\/p>\n

il collo<\/strong> = the\u00a0neck\u00a0 –\u00a0 la colla<\/strong> = the glue<\/span><\/p>\n

il tavolo<\/strong> = the table\u00a0 –\u00a0 la tavola<\/strong> = the plank\/board<\/span><\/p>\n

il porto<\/strong> = the port\u00a0 –\u00a0 la porta<\/strong> = the door<\/span><\/p>\n

il cappello<\/strong> = the hat\u00a0 –\u00a0 la cappella<\/strong> = the chapel<\/span><\/p>\n

il banco<\/strong> = the bench\/stall\u00a0 –\u00a0 la banca<\/strong> = the bank<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Another group of words that change meaning with gender are those pertaining to trees and fruit. Very often, but not always, the plant name is masculine and the fruit is feminine:<\/span><\/p>\n

il melo<\/strong> = the apple tree\u00a0 –\u00a0 la mela<\/strong> = the apple<\/span><\/p>\n

il pero<\/strong> = the pear tree\u00a0 –\u00a0 la pera<\/strong> = the pear<\/span><\/p>\n

il pesco<\/strong> = the peach tree\u00a0 – \u00a0la pesca<\/strong> = the peach<\/span><\/p>\n

il ciliegio<\/strong> = the cherry tree\u00a0 –\u00a0 la ciliegia<\/strong> = the cherry<\/span><\/p>\n

il castagno<\/strong> = the chestnut tree\u00a0 –\u00a0 la castagna<\/strong> = the chestnut<\/span><\/p>\n

il noce<\/strong> = the walnut tree\u00a0 –\u00a0 la noce<\/strong> = the walnut\u00a0 –\u00a0 N.B. the spelling for these two is identical, only the article changes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco il vostro compito\u00a0per casa per questo fine settimana, buona fortuna!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(That\u2019s your homework for this weekend, good luck!)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most confusing aspects of Italian for English speakers is trying to get to grips with the gender of words. This is further complicated by he fact that we don\u2019t use the letter \u2018s\u2019 to pluralize but \u2018i\u2019, or \u2018e\u2019 depending on the gender of the word. Therefore constructing a sentence can be…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[787],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-maschile-o-femminile"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17077,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/17077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}