A missing gender

Italian has no neuter gender. This means that, from the grammar point of view, all that is "it" in English is either "he" or "she" in Italian. There are historical reasons, based on the Latin origins of the language, why the sun "il sole" is masculine [m.] whereas the moon "la luna" is feminine [f.]. You are advised to learn nouns with their articles - this can be of help in memorizing gender.

Italians use grammatical gender automatically, without attaching any meaning to the fact that (just to give another example) "il banco" (the desk) is masculine and "la sedia" (the chair) is feminine.

"La virtù" (virtue) is feminine while "il vizio" (vice) is masculine: I sometimes pretend I'm scandalised and find this totally absurd. I'm only joking, of course - and anyway I usually find that most persons are unaware of this contrast: quite simply, they had never noticed before.

As we shall see in much grater detail here , you cannot rely on word endings. It is true that most nouns ending in "-o" are masculine and most nouns ending in "-a" are feminine, but there are several important exceptions. Besides, there are no clues to decide whether a sing. noun ending in "-e" is masculine like "il sole, il pane" etc. (the sun, bread...) or feminine like "la notte, la nave" etc. (the night, the ship...).

By and large, the nouns referring to human beings are masculine or feminine depending on sex - like in English. This also applies to animals, especially pets.

A controversial rule - but a rule, nonetheless - requires the m. gender when referring to m. and f. referents together: "Il tavolo e la sedia sono pronti" ( The table [m. sng.] and the chair [f. sng.] are ready [m. pl.]). If I say "Ho tre figlie" it means I have got three daughters, but if I say "Ho tre figli" it may mean that I have three sons or any combination of boys and girls.