Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1 Varieties of language
- WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS
- THE CLAUSE – combining words
- 14 Gender
- 15 Number
- 16 Pronouns
- 17 Comparison
- 18 Word order
- 19 Negation
- 20 Periphrases
- 21 Verbs of movement
- 22 Auxiliary verbs in compound tenses
- 23 The passive
- 24 Reflexives and impersonals
- THE SENTENCE – combining clauses
- TEXTS AND THEIR STRUCTURE
- Bibliography
- Italian word index
- Grammar index
14 - Gender
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1 Varieties of language
- WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS
- THE CLAUSE – combining words
- 14 Gender
- 15 Number
- 16 Pronouns
- 17 Comparison
- 18 Word order
- 19 Negation
- 20 Periphrases
- 21 Verbs of movement
- 22 Auxiliary verbs in compound tenses
- 23 The passive
- 24 Reflexives and impersonals
- THE SENTENCE – combining clauses
- TEXTS AND THEIR STRUCTURE
- Bibliography
- Italian word index
- Grammar index
Summary
All Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine.
Gender and sex
Persons
Nouns referring to persons of the male sex tend to be masculine, nouns referring to persons of the female sex tend to be feminine. There are, however, a number of exceptions. It should be remembered that agreement of adjectives and past participles with nouns is generally based on grammatical gender, not natural sex.
Masculine nouns with possible female referents
Most are job titles for which a feminine form is not in use. They are nouns relating to:
professions, e.g. medicodoctor, ingegnereengineer, falegnamecarpenter
positions or ranks within an organization or a team, e.g. consigliereboard member, sergentesergeant, portieregoalkeeper
note also
soprano, mezzosoprano, contralto, which in the singular are sometimes used in the feminine (la soprano etc.) when referring to actual female singers rather than to voice ranges.
Feminine nouns with possibe male referents
Notable among the most common are:
guardiaguard, sentinellasentry, rèclutarecruit, vittimavictim, guidaguide, spiaspy, canagliarascal
In some words, an accent is used to indicate the main stress but should not be used when writing. See p. 29.
note that in uncertain or (potentially) mixed contexts, masculine is the “default” gender in Italian, e.g.:
Quanti figli hai? How many children/boys do you have?
[…]
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- Information
- Using ItalianA Guide to Contemporary Usage, pp. 239 - 255Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004