bread/loaves, ship/s) .
Nouns
Typically, It. nouns end with a vowel that can change according to number and, in some cases, according to gender.
| m. | f. |
sng. | bambino | bambina |
pl. | bambini |
bambine |
The words in the table are "Child/children (m. & f.), boy(s)/girl(s), horse(s)/mare(s)".
Nouns ending with "-e" usually change it to "-i" for the plural forms: "pane/i, nave/i" ( bread/loaves, ship/s) .
Notice: 1) nouns belonging to this group may be either masculine like "pane" or feminine like "nave".
2) the ones that refer to people are often used for both genders: "insegnante, studente, dirigente, commerciante"... ( teacher, student, manager/director, trader...); words like "studentessa"
( female student ) do exist but they are controversial as some people do not consider them politically correct.
3) most nouns ending with "-o" are m. but there are exceptions like "mano, radio, moto, auto" ( hand, radio-set, motorbike, motorcar) that are f.
4) most nouns ending with "-a" are f. but there are exceptions like "pilota, poeta, dentista, profeta, autista"... ( pilot, poet, dentist, prophet, car driver...) that are m. or common to both genders.
5) unlike Eng. "uncountable" nouns, the It. nouns that have no plural like "la pazienza, lo zinco" ( patience, zinc) are normally preceded by the definite article.
6) nouns ending with a consonant are normally unchangeable; nouns that are identified as loanwords (eg. "burqa, pareo, bermuda"...) are also unchangeable even if they end with a vowel.
7) unlike the examples in the first table, there are pairs of unrelated words like "busto, busta" ( bust/torso, envelope) or "pizzo, pizza" ( lace, pizza).
These are general guidelines. The help of grammar books and/or accurate dictionaries is essential.
For "nomi alterati" see 
For peculiaritiea on gender and number see