Frutto or frutta? What's the difference?

By Sigrid Lee

In English, we have the noun "fruit." It's a collective or uncountable noun, so we rarely use an indefinite article or number before it. When we want to count fruit, we either refer to the fruit in question, for example, an apple or a peach, or we talk about "a piece of fruit."

Things are a little different in Italian. There is an analogous noun to "the fruit," la frutta, which is collective and uncountable.

Io mi ricordo che a casa mia si mangiava, allora, il, a mezzogiorno si mangiava: il primo, la carne, il contorno e la frutta, e la sera si mangiava la minestra.

I remember that at my house we'd eat, then, the, at noon we'd eat: the first course, meat, vegetable [side dish] and fruit, and the evening we'd eat some soup.

Captions 33-36, L'arte della cucina La Prima Identitá - Part 14
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When we want to talk about "fruits and vegetables," we say la frutta e la verdura. We're talking about two categories of plant food. Note that we use the singular in Italian. Sometimes an article is used, but not always.

Ci troviamo al piano inferiore, al piano terra del Mercato Centrale di Firenze. Qui, di solito, tutti i giorni si vendono frutta e verdura e anche altre cose.

We're on the lower level, on the ground floor of the Central Market of Florence. Here, usually, every day, fruits and vegetables are sold, along with other things, too.

Captions 26-28, In giro per l'Italia Firenze - Part 2
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Just as in English we can say "some fruit," in Italian we use un articolo partitivo (a partitive article) which combines a preposition and an article to mean "an indefinite quantity of something." In the example, la frutta is a feminine noun, so we use della.

"Della": devo comprare della frutta.

"Della": I have to buy some fruit.

Caption 18, Marika spiega Articoli partitivi - Part 2
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For more about partitive articles, see Marika's video lessons.

When we do want to talk about a piece of fruit in Italian, we turn to another noun, il frutto. It also means "the fruit," but this time it's countable and refers to one exemplar or specimen. Here, we can also use an indefinite article, or a number. We can form the plural.

Per capire se l'anguria è pronta da gustare, basta bussare sulla buccia. Un suono cupo e basso è il segnale che il frutto è maturo.

To figure out if the watermelon is ready to eat, just knock on the rind. A dull, low sound is the signal that the fruit is ripe.

Captions 5-8, Pomodori Vulcanici Pomodori del Vesuvio - Part 3
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In the previous example, a particular watermelon exemplar has been singled out, so il frutto makes sense. In the following example, the kind of fruit is not mentioned. It could be any fruit, such as una mela (an apple), una pesca (a peach), una pera (a pear), or un'albicocca (an apricot).

"Le guardie sono cadute a terra", scrive Roberto Longhi, come quattro spicchi di un frutto tagliato di netto e sono sprofondate in un sonno pesante".

"The guards fell to the ground," writes Roberto Longhi, like four wedges of a cleanly cut piece of fruit, and sank into a heavy sleep."

Captions 7-9, La pittura più bella del mondo La Resurrezione di Piero della Francesca - Part 10
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While the plural of frutta doesn't exist, we can use the plural of frutto, in other words, frutti.

E poi perché le olive vengono più piccole, le piante tendono, quando si inselvatichiscono, a fare i frutti molto più piccoli.

And also because the olives come out smaller. Plants tend, when they become wild, to produce much smaller fruit.

Captions 16-18, Gianni si racconta L'olivo e i rovi
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Frutto is also used figuratively to mean "result," just as in English.

È il frutto di una generazione artistica geniale e audace.

It is the result of a brilliant and daring artistic generation.

Caption 14, Meraviglie S2 EP3 - Part 1

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It's often employed with no article at all.

...perché tutto quello che vedete è frutto di un lavoro lentissimo.

...because everything you see is the result of a very slow process.

Caption 18, Meraviglie S2EP1 - Part 8
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Note: Frutta is not used figuratively in the same sense as frutto, and would not be appropriate here.

In a future lesson, we'll talk about different kinds of fruit and their peculiarities.