When you start learning Italian grammar, you’ll hear one concept repeated over and over again and that’s: Everything in Italian must agree in gender and number.

Before you can do that though, you have to know what gender and number are in Italian.

All nouns in Italian have a gender (il genere); that is, they are either masculine or feminine, even those referring to things, qualities, or ideas.

This can be a strange concept to native English speakers as cars are often not thought of as being feminine (except to car aficionados) and dogs are not thought of as being masculine, like in Italian.

Generally, singular nouns ending in -o are masculine while nouns ending in -a are feminine. There are a number of exceptions, like il poeta — the poet, being masculine, but you can stick to the rule above when in doubt.

TIP: Most Italian nouns (i nomi) end in a vowel. Nouns that end in a consonant are of foreign origin.

Here are some examples of masculine and feminine nouns.

Masculine Nouns

Amico

Treno

Dollaro

Panino

Feminine Nouns

Amica

Bicicletta

Lira

Studentessa

The most important element to look for in order to determine the gender is the definite article, but you’ll notice that nouns ending in -e may be masculine or feminine, and like many of the lovely things you need to learn, the gender of these nouns must be memorized.

Masculine Nouns Examples to Memorize

Studente

Ristorante

Caffè

Feminine Nouns Examples to Memorize

Automobile

Notte

Arte

Nouns ending -ione are generally feminine, while nouns ending in -ore are almost always masculine.