| 4.6 Words ending on co / go and word stress on the before last syllable |
A glance on the endings, provided that you remember what we said in chapter 2.5 The 'c' (ca / co / cu is pronounced ka / ko / ku, ci / ce became tschi / tsche), is enough to realise that there is a problem. If you form the plural following the general rule the pronunciation changes. Tedesco (German) for instance would become (~Tedeci). Therefore it is necesary to put an h in between i order to avoid that the pronunciation of the c changes.
| co => chi go => ghi |
But as you can see in the examples above there are words as well where the ca becomes ci (amico <=> amici).
If the word stress falls on the before last syllable, what happens very often in Italian (see 2.26) the c is maintained in his original phonetic value.
| Examples | |
| il tedesco => i tedeschi the German => the Germans |
|
| l' albergo => gli alberghi the hotel => the hotels |
|
| il parco => i parchi the park => the parks |
|
But there are some very important words that doesn't follow this rule.
| Examples | |
| l' amico => gli amici the friend => the friends l'amico forms the plural differently from l' amica |
|
| il nemico => i nemici the enemy => the enemies |
|
| Summary | ||
| Singular | Plural | |
| l'amico | gli amici |
|
| l'amica | le amiche |
|
| il nemico | i nemici |
|
| la nemica | le nemiche |
|
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