The noun in Italian — Italian grammar A1

The noun

The noun (il nome / il sostantivo) is the word that names people, animals, things, places, and also feelings and ideas. There are three points to keep in mind: (1) in Italian a noun almost always comes paired with an article (il, la, un, una); (2) every noun has a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine) that must be learned with the word; (3) capital and small letters follow slightly special rules. On this sheet you learn to recognise and classify nouns, always studying them together with the article.

‹ Italian grammar

Level: A1 · 16 min of study

Leggi questo biglietto da visita: «Marco Rossi, ingegnere. Vivo a Milano, in Italia. Adoro la musica, il caffè e la libertà.» Quante parole indicano persone, cose, luoghi o idee? Marco, ingegnere, Milano, Italia, musica, caffè, libertà... Sono tutti nomi — alcuni scritti con la maiuscola, altri no. Perché?

Che cos’è un nome?

Look at the words in BOLD in the examples and try to discover the pattern: what do they name? The noun is the word that names someone or something: a person (un ragazzo), an animal (un gatto), a thing (un tavolo), a place (una città) or a concept and feeling (la libertà, l’amore). In Italian a noun has a gender (masculine or feminine) and a number (singular or plural), and in a sentence it is usually accompanied by an article. So from day one learn it as a pair: not «gatto», but «il gatto».

Anna ha un gatto e un cane.
Sul tavolo c’è una mela.
Roma è una città bellissima.
La libertà è importante.

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