This lesson is based on the premise that you basically know how to form the plural of nouns. To help you get caught up, very generally, if a noun ends in "o," it's usually masculine and the plural usually will end in "i." If it ends in "e," the plural will also likely end in "i", and if a singular noun ends in "a," (usually feminine), the plural will most likely end in "e." To learn more, check out Daniela's lessons about plurals here and here.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. In two different videos this week, we find unconventional plurals, one of which is well worth knowing, and one that you likely won't run into every day.
In one video, Arianna goes to Lucca. She learns that Lucca still has its ancient walls: le mura. The singular is il muro (the wall).
Le mura hanno tutto un percorso sopra che puoi fare,
The walls have a path on top that you can go on,
Caption 63, In giro per l'Italia - Lucca - Part 1
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To help you remember the name for "wall," in Italian, think of a mural, which is a piece of art, like a painting or enlarged photograph, right on a wall. Or think of "intramural" — within the walls of a school or institution.
Anna and Marika are busy in the kitchen dealing with fish, and more specifically, anchovies. They are pretty small fish, so taking out the guts is a tedious job they gladly leave to the fish vendor.
You might be familiar with the adjective interiore (inside, internal, interior) but there is a noun, le interiora, which means "the guts," "the entrails," or "the internal organs," and is always in the plural: interiora.
Le alici dovranno essere, ehm... senza testa e eviscerate. Quindi bisogna togliere le interiora.
The anchovies should be, ehm... without their heads and gutted. Therefore, one needs to remove the entrails.
Captions 13-15, L'Italia a tavola - Involtini di alici - Part 1
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And let's not forget some other unconventional plurals that work pretty much the same way:
un uovo, due uova (one egg, two eggs)
Prendiamo una forchetta e iniziamo a sbattere le uova...
We take a fork and begin beating the eggs...
Caption 13, Adriano - Pasta alla carbonara - Part 2
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un braccio, due braccia (one arm, two arms)
Ma com'è? E com'è? C'ha due gambe, due braccia, due occhi, come deve essere?
But what's she like? And what's she like? She has two legs, two arms, two eyes. What should she be like?
Captions 13-14, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP3 - Delitto tra le lenzuola - Part 4
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un miglio, due miglia (one mile, two miles)
La Mille Miglia è la corsa più bella del mondo!
The "Mille Miglia" [one thousand miles] is the greatest race in the world!
Caption 33, La Mille Miglia - del passato per vivere quella di oggi - Part 3
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un migliaio di, poche migliaia di (about a thousand, a few thousand)
Il debito era di poche migliaia di euro.
The debt was of a few thousand euros.
Caption 40, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero - Part 14
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un paio, due paia (a pair, two pairs)
Ma quattro paia di scarpe vanno bene lo stesso.
But four pairs of shoes are fine, too.
Caption 52, Psicovip - I Visitatori - Ep 14
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This list is not complete, but we'll look at other such nouns in a future lesson.
Questo/questa (this), and quello/quella (that) are both adjectives when they come before a noun or pronoun, and pronouns when replacing a noun. This happens in both English and Italian.
In the following examples, we have adjectives.
In questo caso, perché uso il congiuntivo?
In this case, why do I use the subjunctive?
Caption 10, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Il congiuntivo
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Questa storia vuole dire che bisogna imparare dalle esperienze degli altri.
This story means that you need to learn from the experiences of others.
Caption 24, Adriano - Fiaba
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Quella donna ha sempre avuto un aria un po' triste, poveretta.
That woman has always had a sad air about her, poor thing.
Caption 21, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP3 - Delitto tra le lenzuola
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In the following example, quello is shortened to quel but it works the same way.
In quel caso non ho bisogno della preposizione.
In that case I do not need the preposition.
Caption 54, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Verbo + Verbo all'infinito + preposizione DI
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If there were an “S” plus “P” in a masculine noun, as in the following example, we might say:
Luigi ha quello spirito di avventura che io non ho.
Luigi has that spirit of adventure that I do not have.
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As a pronoun, questo, questa, quello or quella may replace both objects and people. In some cases, it’s true in English, too, as in:
Questo è per te.
This is for you.
Here, in the same sentence, we have the pronoun and person the pronoun refers to.
Questa è mia zia.
This is my aunt.
But attenzione. In Italian, we can use the pronoun form to replace people or things even when in English we need the adjective form plus a pronoun. In the example below, questo is a pronoun, representing “this person” but in English, we need to use the adjective “this” plus the pronoun “one” that stands for a person we aren’t identifying by name. We could also say “this guy” or “that guy.”
Questo è pazzo completo, or more correctly, [questo è completamente pazzo]
This one/this guy is completely crazy.
Caption 23, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP2 - L'addio di Lara
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So watch out for examples such as the above, where the Italian pronoun corresponds to an adjective plus pronoun in English.
La sua scrivania è quella là, dottoressa.
Your desk is that one over there, ma'am.
Caption 40, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP3 - Delitto tra le lenzuola
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In English, we could say, “That’s your desk,” but it would be wrong to say, “Your desk is that over there.”
Uno di loro, per l'esattezza quello che voleva tagliarti la gola...
One of them, to be precise, the one who wanted to cut your throat...
Caption 23, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale
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Sometimes, questo, questa, or quello, quella represents something unspecified and we might translate it as “what,” or “whatever.”
"Se fossi in te io non lo chiamerei,
“If I were you, I would not call him,
poi tu fai quello che ti senti di fare".
but you do whatever you feel up to doing.”
Captions 64-65, Marika spiega Gli avverbi - Avverbi di tempo
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When using these adjective/pronouns, we just need to remember that they work similarly in English and Italian, but only up to a point. What's been discussed here is a detail, but it can easily trip us up when we're trying to speak our best Italian or understand what someone is talking about.
Further learning:
As you watch Yabla videos, see if you can determine when questo, questa, quello and quellabehave as adjectives and when they are pronouns. Don’t forget that you can also click on the transcript of a video and see the whole text printed out in one or both languages. It may be easier to pick them out.
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