2007/02/24

Irregular Plurals

Irregular Plurals

There are several words in Italian that have two plural forms — a masculine and a feminine. Many of these are related to parts of the body and have diverse meanings.
SINGULAR MASCULINE PLURAL FEMININE PLURAL
braccio i bracci (arms of a lamp or cross) le braccia (arms)
budello i budelli (streets, alleyways) le budella (intestines)
calcagno i calcagni (ankles) stare alle calcagna (to follow someone closely)
ciglio i cigli (edge, rim) le ciglia (eyelashes)
dito i diti (used when followed by the finger's name) le dita (fingers)
labbro i labbri border, brim le labbra lips
osso gli ossi (bones for dogs to eat) le ossa (bones)

There are also body parts with masculine and feminine plurals that have the same meaning. One such example is ginocchio. Both i ginocchi and le ginocchia refer to "the knees."

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