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Most masculine words that end in -io pronounced as /jo/ drop the -o and thus end in -i in the plural: vecchio / vecchi ('old'), funzionario / funzionari ('functionary(-ies)'), esempio / esempi ('example(s)'), etc. The Italian hard and soft C and G phenomenon leads to certain peculiarities in spelling and pronunciation:
In Italian phonemic distinction between long and short vowels is rare and limited to a few words and one morphological class, namely the pair composed by the first and third person of the historic past in verbs of the third conjugation—compare sentii (/senˈtiː/, "I felt/heard'), and sentì (/senˈti/, "he felt/heard").
The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, a e i o u . Of those, only a represents one sound value, while all others have two. In addition, e and i indicate a different pronunciation of a preceding c or g (see below). In stressed syllables, e represents both open /ɛ/ and close /e/.
Masculine nouns lack theme vowels, and feminine nouns typically (but not always) terminate in a. Masculine nouns and adjectives undergo lexically-specified umlaut to form the plural, and feminine nouns and adjectives form the plural by a becoming i or being deleted after a consonant cluster or a double consonant. [5]
Italian term Literal translation Definition A cappella: in chapel style: Sung with no (instrumental) accompaniment, has much harmonizing Aria: air: Piece of music, usually for a singer Aria di sorbetto: sorbet air: A short solo performed by a secondary character in the opera Arietta: little air: A short or light aria Arioso: airy A type of solo ...
-o masculine singular-a feminine singular-i masculine plural-e feminine plural; Reflexive verbs always use essere, and their past participle agrees with the subject or with third person object pronouns, if these precede the verb. mi sono lavato/-a "I washed myself" ci siamo visti/-e "we saw each other" si è lavato le gambe "he washed his legs"
Example of gender-neutral masculine: English (5) a. If anybody comes, tell him. masculine him used to refer to a person of unknown sex b. *If anybody comes, tell her. feminine her is not used to refer to a person of unknown sex Example of collective masculine: French (6) a. Vos amis sont arrivés — Ils étaient en avance.
In Marathi, masculine proper nouns are made diminutive with -ya or -u, while feminine proper nouns use -u and sometimes -ee. This is of course most often applied to children's names, though lifelong nicknames can result. Masculine : Abhijit (अभिजित) → Abhya (अभ्या)