Not all nouns in Italian are regular. So as we, eager students of Italian, learn new rules about o’s changing to i’s and a’s gracefully becoming e’s at the end of nouns, we’re shocked to discover that not all nouns do that.
Some nouns don’t change endings at all from singular to plural.
You may have made mistakes with the ones below in the past (I know I have), so I’m hoping this bite-sized lesson will help you remember for the next time and the time after that, too.
INVARIABLE NOUNS
Il menù / I menù - Menu / menus
La foto / Le foto - Picture / pictures
Il bar / i bar - Cafe / cafes
Il computer / i computer - Computer / computers
Lo sport / gli sport - Sport / sports
La città / le città - City / cities
Besides the last one, are you noticing a theme here? Besides the last one, those words seem pretty darn similar to English words. This isn’t a hard + fast rule, but when Italians borrow nouns from English, they’re typically invariable.
Buono studio!
Cher
P.S. What are you watching or reading in Italian right now? I want to start watching a new show, and I’m open to any recommendations that fall within the not-too-serious category of television. Grazie in anticipo!
Um, what’s the plural for “foto”?