Adjectives and nouns ending in co, ca and go, ga add an H in the plural: l’albergo, gli alberghi. But this is not always the case: l’amico, gli amici. Let’s learn together some words and their plural.
CA and GA
Feminine adjectives and nouns ending in ca and ga always add an H in the plural.
jacket | la giacca | le giacche |
female friend | l’amica | le amiche |
white | bianca | bianche |
long | lunga | lunghe |
nice, likeable | simpatica | simpatiche |
CO und GO
Male adjectives and nouns ending in co and go may or may not add an H. Basically, it depends on where the accent is in the word, whether on the penultimate (e.g. te|des|co) or on the third to last (me|di|co) syllable, and then accordingly with h or without h (tedeschi, medici). But this rule has some exceptions (e.g. amico > amici) and it may not be very practical. Therefore, it may be easier to memorize the plural forms by heart!
Listen to the pronunciation
co > chi
go > ghi
game | il gioco | i giochi |
hotel | l’albergo | gli alberghi |
lake | il lago | i laghi |
mushroom | il fungo | i funghi |
white | bianco | bianchi |
German | tedesco | tedeschi |
long | lungo | lunghi |
co > ci
go > gi
friend | l’amico | gli amici |
doctor | il medico | i medici |
asparagus | l’asparago | gli asparagi |
nice, likeable | simpatico | simpatici |
magic | magico | magici |
Greek | greco | greci |
Austrian | austriaco | austriaci |
Fai un esercizio
Impara di più
GRAMMATICA: 20 irregular verbs in the present tense here
VOCABOLARIO: The hotel room here
STORIE: Read a story in Italian! here