Italian grammar: Nouns with two (singular or plural) forms

Italian nouns with two singulars and / or two plurals (Nomi sovrabbondandi)

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In Italian, there are a few nouns with:

- a double form of singular;
- a double form of plural (masculine and feminine);
- nouns with two singulars and two plurals (masculine and feminine).

Let's go into each one in depth:

Nouns with two singular forms

Italian nouns with two singulars, are all masculine and can have an ending in "-iero" or in "-iere".

Nowadays, in the common language, the ending in "-iere" is not used anymore and can only be encountered in literature.

SINGULAR		PLURAL
COMMON LANGUAGE	LITERARY FORM	PLURAL
Il destriero (steed)	Il destriere	I destrieri
Il nocchiero (coxswain)	Il nocchiere	I nocchieri
Lo sparviero (sparrowhawk)	Lo sparviere	Gli sparvieri
Il forestiero (foreigner)	Il forestiere	I forestieri

Nouns with two plural forms

With reference to nouns with two plurals (masculine and feminine), they can be classified into two groups, depending on the meaning of their plurals:

- Nouns whose plurals have two different meanings
- Nouns whose plurals have the same meaning

1. Nouns that have two plurals with different meanings:

In the singular form, these nouns take on the meaning of both the plurals. Here is a list of the most importat ones:

SINGULAR	PLURAL (masculine)	PLURAL (feminine)
Il braccio	I bracci (arms of a river / jib)	Le braccia (arms)
Il ciglio	I cigli (edges)	Le ciglia (eyelash)
Il corno	I corni (horns - instruments)	Le corna (horns of animals)
Il gesto	I gesti (gestures)	Le gesta (deeds)
Il dito	I diti (fingers - considered individually)	Le dita (fingers - considered collectively)
Il labbro	I labbri (lips of a wound / a vase, a cup, etc...)	Le labbra (lips of mouth)
Il frutto	I frutti (fruits on a single tree / outcome of an activity)	La frutta / Le frutta (fruits in a collective sense)
Il filo	I fili (threads)	Le fila (threads of a plot)
Il fondamento	I fondamenti (basic principles)	Le fondamenta (foundations of buildings)
L'osso	Gli ossi (slaughtered animal bones)	Le ossa (bones of a human skeleton)
Il muro	I muri (walls of a building)	Le mura (walls of a city)
Il grido	I gridi (cries of animals)	Le grida (cries of a person / people)
Il membro	I membri (members of a community, a family, etc..)	Le membra (Limbs of body)
Il lenzuolo	I lenzuoli (sheets, two or more considered separately)	Le lenzuola (the pair of sheets to make the bed)

2. Nouns that have two plurals with the same meaning:

There are not many nouns with this peculiarity. Here is a list of the most common ones:

SINGULAR	PLURAL (masculine)	PLURAL (feminine)
Il ginocchio (knee)	I gionocchi	Le gionocchia
Il gomito (elbow)	I gomiti	Le gomita
Il sopracciglio (eyebrow)	I sopraccigli	Le sopracciglia

Nouns with two singulars and two plurals

Finally, in Italian, there is a couple of nouns with two singular and two plural forms, with no difference in meaning:

SINGULAR		PLURAL
L'orecchio (ear)	L'orecchia	Gli orecchi	Le orecchie
La strofa (strophe)	La strofe	Le strofe	Le strofi

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