Italian Plurals: Nouns and Adjectives

Level: A1. In Italian, you make a word plural by changing its ending, not by adding -s. Nouns and the adjectives that describe them change together, so “the new houses” is le case nuove — every word in the phrase is plural and feminine.

The rule

The plural ending depends on the singular ending, not directly on the gender:

• Singular -o → plural -i: libro → libri (book → books).
• Singular -a → plural -e: casa → case (house → houses).
• Singular -e → plural -i: cane → cani (dog → dogs), chiave → chiavi (key → keys).

So both -o and -e end up in -i; only -a goes to -e. Because an -e noun can be masculine or feminine, learn each one with its article: il cane (m), la chiave (f) — but both pluralise to -i.

Adjectives must agree — copy the gender and number of the noun. An adjective that ends in -o has four forms (-o, -a, -i, -e); an adjective that ends in -e has only two (-e, -i).

Plural forms

Adjective agreement in full — the four-form type and the two-form type:

The spelling fix: -co, -go, -ca, -ga

A hard c or g sound must stay hard before the plural vowel, so an h is often inserted:

• Feminine -ca → -che, -ga → -ghe (always): amica → amiche, riga → righe, collega → colleghe.
• Masculine -go → -ghi (usually): lago → laghi, albergo → alberghi.
• Masculine -co → -chi when the stress is on the next-to-last syllable: fuoco → fuochi, gioco → giochi, tedesco → tedeschi.
• Masculine -co → -ci when the stress is earlier: medico → medici, sindaco → sindaci.

Words that never change

Some nouns keep one form for singular and plural — only the article shows the number:

• Ending in a stressed (accented) vowel: la città → le città, il caffè → i caffè, l’università → le università.
• Shortened words: la foto → le foto (from fotografia), la moto, l’auto, il cinema.
• Foreign borrowings: il bar → i bar, il film → i film, lo sport → gli sport.
• One-syllable words: il re → i re (the king → the kings).

Example sentences

1. Il libro è nuovo.
   The book is new.
   -o singular
2. I libri sono nuovi.
   The books are new.
   -o → -i, adjective agrees
3. La casa è rossa.
   The house is red.
   -a singular
4. Le case sono rosse.
   The houses are red.
   -a → -e, rossa → rosse
5. Il cane è piccolo.
   The dog is small.
   -e noun, masculine
6. I cani sono piccoli.
   The dogs are small.
   -e → -i
7. La chiave è sul tavolo.
   The key is on the table.
   -e noun, feminine
8. Le chiavi sono qui.
   The keys are here.
   -e → -i
9. Ho una amica simpatica.
   I have a nice (female) friend.
   -ca singular
10. Ho due amiche simpatiche.
    I have two nice friends.
    -ca → -che, keeps hard c
11. Il lago è grande.
    The lake is big.
    -go, grande singular
12. I laghi sono grandi.
    The lakes are big.
    -go → -ghi, grande → grandi
13. Il mio amico è italiano.
    My friend is Italian.
    -co, exception coming
14. I miei amici sono italiani.
    My friends are Italian.
    amico → amici (drops h)
15. La ragazza è alta.
    The girl is tall.
    -a, alta
16. Le ragazze sono alte.
    The girls are tall.
    -a → -e
17. La città è bella.
    The city is beautiful.
    accented -à: invariable
18. Le città italiane sono belle.
    The Italian cities are beautiful.
    città unchanged, adjectives plural
19. Ho visto un film interessante.
    I saw an interesting film.
    foreign word
20. Ho visto due film interessanti.
    I saw two interesting films.
    film unchanged, adjective → -i

Common mistakes

• ❌ le casa → ✅ le case. A feminine -a noun pluralises to -e, not -a.
• ❌ le chiave → ✅ le chiavi. An -e noun takes -i in the plural, whatever its gender.
• ❌ le amice → ✅ le amiche. -ca adds an h to keep the hard “k” sound: amiche.
• ❌ i amichi → ✅ gli amici. Amico is the exception that drops the h: amici (and the article before a vowel is gli).
• ❌ le città bella → ✅ le città belle. The noun is invariable, but the adjective still goes plural.
• ❌ i libri rossa → ✅ i libri rossi. The adjective must match the noun in gender and number.

A short conversation

— Quante valigie porti? (How many suitcases are you bringing?) — Due valigie e tre borse. (Two suitcases and three bags.) — E i libri? Sono pesanti? (And the books? Are they heavy?) — Sì, i libri sono pesanti, ma le città che visitiamo sono belle, quindi va bene! (Yes, the books are heavy, but the cities we’re visiting are beautiful, so it’s fine!)

Notice valigia → valigie, borsa → borse (-a → -e), libro → libri with pesante → pesanti, and città unchanged while bella → belle still goes plural.

Usage notes

• The ending drives the plural, not the gender. La mano is feminine but ends in -o, so its plural is le mani (an -o → -i change with a feminine article). Il problema is masculine but ends in -a, so it becomes i problemi.
• -io nouns. If the i is not stressed, the plural has a single i: figlio → figli, bacio → baci. If the i is stressed, keep both: zio → zii (uncle → uncles).
• -cia and -gia. When a vowel comes before, keep the i: camicia → camicie (shirts). When a consonant comes before, drop it: arancia → arance (oranges), spiaggia → spiagge (beaches).
• Adjective position does not change agreement. Whether the adjective comes before or after (una bella casa / una casa bella), it still agrees: belle case / case belle.

Compared with…

• Noun gender decides which plural article you use (i vs le) and which adjective form. Read Italian Noun Gender and Number first if gender is still shaky.
• Definite and indefinite articles change with number too: il → i, la → le, lo → gli, un → dei/degli/delle. See Italian Definite Articles and Italian Indefinite Articles.

How to say it

Italian reads almost exactly as it is written. These are the sounds that matter for plurals:

Quick recap before the quiz.

Practice

Practice

Plurals practice

Try each one, then press Check. No sign-up, nothing is sent anywhere — it all runs in your browser.

1 What is the plural of 'il libro'?

i libre i libri le libri i libro

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i libri — -o becomes -i: i libri.

2 Plural of 'la casa': le ____

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Hint: -a becomes -e

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case — Feminine -a nouns pluralise to -e: le case.

3 Plural of 'la amica': le ____

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Hint: keep the hard c with an h

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amiche — -ca adds an h: amiche.

4 Build: 'The houses are red.'

rosselesonocase

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le case sono rosse — Everything feminine plural: le case sono rosse.

5 Match each singular with its plural.

• libro Match for libro — choose — canicasecittàlibri
• casa Match for casa — choose — canicasecittàlibri
• cane Match for cane — choose — canicasecittàlibri
• città Match for città — choose — canicasecittàlibri

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• libro → libri
• casa → case
• cane → cani
• città → città

-o/-e to -i, -a to -e, and città is invariable.

6 Which is the correct plural of 'amico'?

amichi amici amice amics

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amici — amico is the exception that drops the h: amici.

Quiz

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Italian plurals

13 questions · pick an answer and you'll see straight away if it's right.

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1. 1Singular -o becomes…

   A -e B -i C -a D no change
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   -i — libro becomes libri.

2. 2Singular -a becomes…

   A -i B -e C -o D no change
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   -e — casa becomes case.

3. 3An -e noun in the plural ends in…

   A -e B -a C -i D no change
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   -i — cane becomes cani, chiave becomes chiavi.

4. 4The plural of 'la amica' is…

   A le amice B le amiche C le amici D le amicche
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   le amiche — -ca adds an h to keep the hard sound: amiche.

5. 5The plural of 'il lago' is…

   A i lagi B i laghi C le laghi D i lago
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   i laghi — -go usually becomes -ghi: laghi.

6. 6The plural of 'amico' is…

   A amichi B amici C amice D amichs
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   amici — amico is an exception and drops the h: amici.

7. 7The plural of 'la città' is…

   A le cittàe B le città C le cittài D i città
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   le città — Accented-vowel nouns are invariable: le città.

8. 8Plural of 'la chiave': le ____
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   chiavi — -e nouns take -i: le chiavi.

9. 9Which phrase agrees correctly?

   A le case rossi B i libri rossa C le case rosse D i libri rosse
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   le case rosse — Feminine plural noun and adjective: le case rosse.

10. 10The adjective 'grande' in the plural is…

    A grande B grandi C grande/granda D grandes
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    grandi — An -e adjective has one plural for both genders: grandi.

11. 11The plural of 'il film' is…

    A i filmi B i film C le film D i films
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    i film — Foreign words are invariable: i film.

12. 12Plural of 'la foto': le ____
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    foto — Shortened words like foto do not change: le foto.

13. 13The plural of 'lo zio' is…

    A i zii B gli zii C gli zi D gli zio
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    gli zii — Stressed -io keeps both i (zii), and lo becomes gli: gli zii.

Recap cheat-sheet

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