Italian Plural Nouns Ending in -O

Italian singular nouns that end in -o form the plural by changing the ending to -i: bambino—bambiniimpiegato—impiegatisasso—sassicoltello—coltelli The plural of the noun uomo is also formed with -i, but with a change in the ending: uomini. Of the few female nouns that end in -o, some remain unchanged in the plural; mano usually becomes mani; eco, which in the singular is feminine, is always masculine in the plural: gli echi. Nouns in -co and -go do not follow a consistent behavior in forming the plural. If there is a pattern to speak of, the nouns maintain the velar consonants /k/ and /g/, and end in -chi and -ghi. However, if the nouns are sdruccioli (stressed on the third-to-last syllable of a word), instead, drop the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ and add the palatal sounds -ci and -gi:baco—bachicuoco—cuochifungo—funghialbergo—alberghimedico—medicisindaco—sindaciteologo—teologiornitologo—ornitologi Among nouns that behave differently from the conventional pattern are: nemico—nemiciamico—amicigreco—greciporco—porci Among nouns that are pronounced with the stress on the third-to-last syllable, there are many more exceptions: carico—carichiincarico—incarichiabbaco—abbachivalico—valichipizzico—pizzichistrascico—strascichidialogo—dialoghicatalogo—cataloghiobbligo—obblighiprologo—prologhiepilogo—epiloghiprofugo—profughi Finally, some nouns have both forms: chirurgo—chirugi, chirurghifarmaco—farmaci, farmachimanico—manici, manichistomaco—stomaci, stomachisarcofago—sarcofagi, sarcofaghiintonaco—intonaci, intonachi Nouns ending in -à ¬o (with a stressed i) form regular plurals ending in -à ¬i: zà ¬o—zà ¬ipendà ¬o—pendà ¬irinvà ¬o—rinvà ¬imormorà ¬o—mormorà ¬i NOTE: dà ¬o becomes dà ¨i in the plural. Nouns ending in -à ¬o (with an unstressed i) lose the i of the stem in the plural, therefore ending in -i:viaggio—viaggifiglio—figlicoccio—cocciraggio—raggibacio—bacigiglio—gigli NOTE: tempio becomes templi in the plural. Some nouns that end in -io in the singular, in the plural may be confused with other plurals of the same spelling; to avoid ambiguity are sometimes used, such as an accent on the stressed syllable, a circumflex accent on the ending, or on the final double i: osservatorio—osservatori, osservatà ²ri, osservatorà ®, osservatoriiosservatore—osservatori, osservatà ³riprincipio—principi, princà ¬pi, principà ®, principiiprincipe—principi, prà ¬ncipiarbitrio—arbitri, arbà ¬tri, arbitrà ®, arbitriiarbitro—arbitri, à  rbitriassassinio—assassini, assassinà ®, assassiniiassassino—assassiniomicidio—omicidi, omicidà ®, omicidiiomicida—omicidi Today the tendency is to write a single i without diacritical marks: the general meaning of the sentence usually resolves any doubt. Some nouns ending in -o, which in the singular are masculine, in the plural become feminine grammatical gender and take the ending -a: il centinaio—le centinaiail migliaio—le migliaiail miglio—le migliail paio—le paialuovo—le uovail riso (il ridere)—le risa The table below summarizes the formation of the plural for Italian nouns ending in -o: Plurale dei Nomi in -O SINGOLARE PLURALE maschile femminile -o -i -i -co, -go (parole piane) -chi, -ghi -co, -go (parole sdruccioli) -ci, -g -io (stressed i) -i -io (unstressed i) -i