All Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine.

Gender and sex

Persons

Nouns referring to persons of the male sex tend to be masculine, nouns referring to persons of the female sex tend to be feminine. There are, however, a number of exceptions. It should be remembered that agreement of adjectives and past participles with nouns is generally based on grammatical gender, not natural sex.

Masculine nouns with possible female referents

Most are job titles for which a feminine form is not in use. They are nouns relating to:

• professions, e.g. medicodoctor, ingegnereengineer, falegnamecarpenter

• positions or ranks within an organization or a team, e.g. consigliereboard member, sergentesergeant, portieregoalkeeper

note also

• soprano, mezzosoprano, contralto, which in the singular are sometimes used in the feminine (la soprano etc.) when referring to actual female singers rather than to voice ranges.

Feminine nouns with possibe male referents

Notable among the most common are:

• guardiaguard, sentinellasentry, rèclutarecruit, vittimavictim, guidaguide, spiaspy, canagliarascal

note that in uncertain or (potentially) mixed contexts, masculine is the “default” gender in Italian, e.g.:

• Quanti figli hai? How many children/boys do you have?

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