Italian nouns can be masculine (articles: il, un) and feminine articles: la, una).

Nouns ending in –o are most often of the male gender (eg caso, cestino, angolo). Nouns in –a (not denoting males) are generally of the female gender (eg casa, figlia, suora). Similarly, nouns ending in –à and –ù (felicità, gioventù).

In the case of the nouns ending in –e, the gender is often difficult to predict. It is usually listed in the dictionary.