Have you ever wondered why the plural of uovo (“egg”) is uova (“eggs”) in Italian? Or why “one man” is un uomo, but two men is due uomini? While plurals in Italian often follow regular patterns, there are a number of irregular plurals to watch out for. But don’t worry, as we’re here to guide you through some of the most common Italian irregular plurals.
The Coffee Break Italian Show is a podcast series of short but informative episodes, in which we discuss tricky Italian language topics. In the latest episode, Francesca and Maurizio are here to explain how irregular plural nouns work in Italian.
Continue reading to find out more, and why not listen to the podcast as you go?
Plus, don’t miss our free worksheet at the end to practise what you learn!
How to make nouns plural in Italian
Before we get into the Italian irregular plurals, let’s quickly review the regular patterns for forming plural nouns in Italian.
Regular patterns for plurals in Italian
The following patterns are likely to be very familiar to you already.
o > i
Singular words ending in -o change to -i in the plural. For example:
un italiano
one Italian (man)
due italiani
two Italians
un ragazzo
one boy
due ragazzi
two boys
a > e
Words ending in -a change to -e in the plural. For instance:
la matita
the pencil
le matite
the pencils
una ragazza
one girl
due ragazze
two girls
e > i
Words ending in -e change to -i in the plural. Our first example is with a masculine noun ending in -e:
lo studente
the student
gli studenti
the students
Now let’s see an example with a feminine noun ending in -e:
l’indicazione
the indication
le indicazioni
the indications
Italian irregular plurals
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: irregular plurals. These are plural nouns that don’t conform to the rules above, so it’s essential to keep an eye out for them.
As Francesca mentions in the episode, there are many irregular plural nouns in Italian, so for now, we’re just going to focus on some of the most common ones to help you get used to looking out for and recognising irregularities.
Francesca’s top tip: check your dictionary if you’re unsure if a noun has an irregular plural form.
We can categorise the most common irregular plurals into three categories: words that change spelling or don’t follow the usual rules; words that change grammatical gender; and words that have a double plural – one of each gender.
Let’s start with the first category.
Irregular plurals that change spelling
Some nouns change their spelling entirely in the plural form. For instance:
l’uomo
the man
gli uomini
the men
This is a clear irregularity, as an extra syllable is added in the plural form.
il dio
the god
gli dei / dèi
the gods
Again, the singular noun dio changes quite drastically in its plural form.
l’ala
the wing
le ali
the wings
If ala was regular in its plural form, we would expect it to have an -e on the end, since it is a feminine noun, but instead it ends in -i.
Irregular plurals that change gender
Some irregular plurals in Italian have a different grammatical gender in their singular form than they do in their plural form. More specifically, they are masculine nouns when they are singular, but feminine nouns when they are plural. Let’s take a look at some examples:
l’uovo (masculine singular)
the egg
le uova (feminine plural)
the eggs
il paio (masculine singular)
the pair
le paia (feminine plural)
the pairs
Here, you can see that the feminine plural definite article is used with each of these nouns when they are in their plural form. However, the nouns themselves don’t have the usual feminine plural ending, -e, which we would expect.
Irregular nouns with double plurals
Taking this a stage further, let’s now turn our attention to the group of Italian nouns that have two possible options for their plural form. However, attenzione! This doesn’t mean that the two options are interchangeable – rather, the masculine plural version and the feminine plural version carry different meanings.
Let’s take a common example: il braccio (“the arm”). One of its plural forms follows the pattern we have just seen, giving us le braccia (“the arms”), but this is used exclusively to refer to your arms attached to your body.
We also have the masculine plural noun i bracci, which is not used to refer to human arms, but is instead a more technical term. I bracci is used to refer to the arms of an inanimate object, such as those of a set of scales, the boom of a crane, or the boom that a microphone would be attached to.
il braccio (masculine singular)
the arm
le braccia (feminine plural)
the arms (of your body)
i bracci (masculine plural)
the arms (of an inanimate object), the booms
Another example that concerns a part of the body is the noun il dito (“the finger”), which uses its feminine plural form to refer to all of your fingers as a collective (le dita).
il dito (masculine singular)
the finger
le dita (feminine plural)
the fingers (of your hand)
However, if we talk about i diti, in the masculine plural form, we are describing more than one individual finger, rather than all of the fingers of a hand.
For example:
i diti indici
the index fingers
i diti mignoli
the little fingers, the pinkies
i diti pollici
the thumbs
One last irregular plural noun in Italian that we’re going to look at concerns the word il muro (“the wall”). In its masculine plural form, i muri (“the walls”) refers to the structural walls of a house or any other building.
However, le mura also exists, which is a feminine plural noun. Here, we are talking about le mura domestiche. Le mura still refers to the concept of a house, but carries a connotation of home and emotional connection, perhaps evoking the family, friends and memories contained within the walls of the house. It’s a little like the difference between the words “house” and “home” in English.
Le mura has a second meaning, too. For example, if you have ever visited the beautiful Italian city of Lucca, you may have seen le mura, which are the old protective walls of a city.
il muro (masculine singular)
the wall
i muri (masculine plural)
the walls (structural)
le mura (domestiche) (feminine plural)
the home
le mura (feminine plural)
the city walls
Time to practise Italian irregular plurals
Now, let’s put your newfound knowledge of Italian irregular plurals to the test with a translation task. Translate the following sentences into Italian, then check your answers at the bottom of this article.
- The walls of this house are very thick.
- I would like two fried eggs for breakfast.
That’s everything for today’s topic. We hope that you now feel more confident recognising and using some of the most common irregular plurals in Italian.
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Keep your eye out for other irregular plural nouns as you read and listen to Italian and, as always, happy Coffee Breaking!
PS. Here are the answers to the translation challenge:
- I muri di questa casa sono molto spessi.
- Vorrei due uova fritte per colazione.
