A number of nouns with masculine singulars in -o have plurals which end in -a and, unlike the singular, are feminine:
il centinaio le centinaia ‘hundred or so’ (see 12.10) il migliaio le migliaia ‘thousand or so’ (see 12.10)
il membro le membra ‘limb’ (of body; i membri are ‘members of an organization’, etc.)
il miglio le miglia ‘mile’
il paio le paia ‘pair’
il riso le risa ‘laugh’ (plural = ‘laughter’)
l’uovo le uova ‘egg’
Several other nouns in masculine singular -o have ‘double’ plurals: a feminine plural in -a, and a ‘regular’ masculine plural in -i. It is difficult to generalize about when the feminine -a forms should be used, and when the masculine -i. As a broad rule, the feminine -a plural is used in these nouns if they denote a pair of body parts or a class of objects usually occurring as a set; otherwise the masculine -i plural is used. But Brunet’s very detailed critical survey (1978: 30–90) shows this to be a considerable oversimplification. What follows are general indications for the use of the alternative plurals. We exclude such plurals as le vestimenta
‘clothes’, le anella ‘curls of hair’ (cf. l’anello ‘ring’), le castella ‘castles’, le carra ‘cart-loads’ (cf. il carro ‘cart’), le gomita ‘elbows’, now considered archaic or regional.
Nouns ending in -o and -a 25
Some body parts characteristically occurring in pairs or sets:
● il braccio le braccia i bracci ‘arm’
The feminine plural is principally associated with the pair of arms of a human body (or, marginally, with the ‘arms’ of an object seen as resembling the arms of a human):
Mi consolo stringendolo tra le braccia. ‘I console myself by squeezing him in my arms.’
I pali telegrafici balzavano l’uno dopo ‘The telegraph poles came bounding one l’altro incontro alla macchina con le braccia after the other towards the car with their
spalancate. arms out wide.’
The feminine braccia is also used as a measure of depth: È profonda tre braccia ‘It’s three fathoms deep’. In other cases the masculine is employed: one usually talks of the bracci of an armchair, a candelabrum, a basket. Note also that the plural of diminutive braccino may also be feminine (in -e):
Pin ha due braccine smilze smilze. ‘P has two spindly little arms.’
● il budello le budella i budelli ‘intestine’
Le budella are anatomical intestines (also le budelle in colloquial usage); i budelli are long, narrow tubes or passages in general.
● il cervello le cervella i cervelli ‘brain’
I cervelli is the generally preferred form, although one encounters cervella in certain expressions such as farsi saltare le cervella ‘to blow one’s brain’s out’ and cervella is the form used of brain served as food.
● il ciglio le ciglia i cigli ‘eyelash’
The feminine plural is usually preferred (including the microbiological sense of ‘cilia’):
L’aceto le cola fra le ciglia bruciandole ‘The vinegar seeps through her
gli occhi. eyelashes burning her eyes.’
But the masculine is used in the figurative sense of ‘edge’, as in i cigli della strada
‘the edges of the road’. For many speakers the singular, like the plural, is how-ever (la) ciglia.
● il corno le corna i corni ‘horn’
Corno is generally feminine in the plural when indicating the body parts, but masculine in the meanings ‘pointed extremities’ (of some object), and ‘horn’
(musical instrument).
● il dito le dita i diti ‘finger’
The plural is generally le dita, even when the word is used to indicate a mea-surement (e.g., Ci metta due dita di vino ‘Put a couple of fingers of wine in’). I diti is employed when fingers are considered not as a group or set, but as separate, detached, entities, e.g.:
Nello stesso momento, in due città ‘At the same moment, in two far distant lontanissime, due diti facevano lo stesso cities, two fingers were dialling the same
numero. number.’
● il ginocchio le ginocchia i ginocchi ‘knee’
In modern usage i ginocchi can safely be used in most cases, although le ginoc-chia is still frequently encountered, especially in certain idioms, such as sedere sulle ginocchia di qualcuno ‘to be sitting on someone’s lap’, Fa venire il latte alle ginocchia ‘He’s a crashing bore’. But there seems to be no clear, systematic, dif-ference in meaning between the two.
● il labbro le labbra i labbri ‘lip’
Le labbra is usual for anatomical lips:
Ma ha le labbra che gli tremano, le labbra ‘But his lips are trembling, the lips of a
da ragazzo malato. sick boy.’
But both i labbri and le labbra may be used in the figurative sense of ‘lips’, ‘edges of a wound’, ‘cave’, etc.
● il midollo le midolla i midolli ‘marrow’ (of bone)
The feminine plural, the sole form normally used, often corresponds to English ‘bones’: e.g., Il freddo mi entra nelle midolla ‘The cold gets into my bones’;
note also Era fradicio fino alle midolla ‘He was soaked to the skin’.
● l’osso le ossa gli ossi ‘bone’
Le ossa usually denotes the set of bones in a body:
Mi fanno male le ossa! ‘My bones are aching!’
Gli ossi are separate, loose, bones, not viewed as forming an anatomical set. For example:
Le bandiere erano nere e avevano nel centro ‘The flags were black and in the centre l’immagine d’un teschio tra quattro ossi. they had the image of a skull amid four
bones.’
● il sopracciglio le sopracciglia i sopraccigli ‘eyebrow’
The feminine plural is the more commonly used, and there is no obvious distinction of meaning between the masculine and the feminine.
Other words with feminine plural -a are:
● il fondamento le fondamenta i fondamenti ‘foundation’
The feminine is used of the foundations of a building; the masculine in the sense ‘basic, elementary notions’ (e.g., fondamenti di matematica).
● il lenzuolo le lenzuola i lenzuoli ‘sheet’
The feminine plural is preferred for the pair of sheets on a bed; otherwise the masculine is employed.
● il muro le mura i muri ‘wall’
Le mura denotes the perimeter walls of a town, building or room, viewed as a set or collectivity (e.g., fra queste quattro mura ‘within these four walls’). If the collec-tive sense is absent, or simply not regarded as important, the masculine is used:
Erano andati a stare in una casa nuova, ‘They had gone to live in a new house, situata fuori delle mura della città. outside the city walls.’
Sui muri di Napoli apparvero grandi ‘On the walls of Naples appeared large
manifesti. posters.’
Nouns ending in -o and -a 27
● lo staio le staia (gli stai) ‘bushel’, ‘grain container’
The plural is almost always staia, although some dictionaries state that the feminine refers to the measurement and the masculine to the container.
Le cuoia is an archaic plural of cuoio ‘leather’, ‘hide’, but still used in the idiom tirare le cuoia ‘to kick the bucket, die’.
In certain words, native speakers accept either kind of plural indifferently;
where the feminine seems to be the predominant form, the masculine is given in brackets:
il ferramento le ferramenta (i ferramenti) ‘tool’, ‘ironware’
il grido le grida i gridi ‘shout’
il moggio le moggia (i moggi) ‘grain measure’ = 5 bushels
lo strido le strida (gli stridi) ‘shriek’
l’urlo le urla gli urli ‘howl’
il vestigio le vestigia i vestigi ‘vestige’
The plural of fuso ‘spindle’ is le fusa only in the idiom fare le fusa ‘to purr’ (of a cat); the plural of filo ‘thread’, le fila, is limited to senses associated with plots or conspiracies (e.g., Ha in mano lui le fila della congiura ‘He has the threads of the plot in his hands’). Also fare le fila ‘to be stringy’ (of cheese). The feminine plural of calcagno ‘heel’, le calcagna, seems to occur principally in phrases indicating
‘being at somebody’s heels’, ‘in pursuit’, ‘following’ (e.g., Non sapeva che il padre gli aveva messo alle calcagna un investigatore privato ‘He didn’t know his father had set a private detective to tail him’).
The feminine plural ending -a occurs in nouns only: modifying adjectives have their ordinary feminine form in the plural (thus l’uovo fresco ‘the fresh egg’ vs. le uova fresche). A peculiarity of agreement is that a singular pronoun referring to such feminine plural nouns will take a feminine singular form:
Queste uova costano dieci lire ciascuna. ‘These eggs cost 10 lire each one.’
Di sopra, a circa quattrocento metri, ‘Above, at about 400 metres, on a little sopra un piccolo piazzale, stavano le ossa terrace, were D’s bones, one here, one
di Darrio, una qui una lì. there.’
A pronoun referring to a plural of these words may have feminine form (although this rule is not obligatory, and some speakers prefer venderli in the fol-lowing example):
Dice che sua madre non gli dà mai un ‘He says his mother never gives him an uovo perché deve venderle. egg because she has to sell them.’