A particular case of plural forms in Italian: words ending in “-cia” and “gia”
When I teach Italian, I always ask: “when I buy 1Kg arance (oranges), do I buy them with -i (that means: arancie) or without -i (that means: arance)?”
One of particular cases of plural forms is, in my opinion, the case of feminine words ending in “-cia” or “-gia“. Our doubts can be settled with the following rule:
when an Italian feminine word ends in -cia or -gia, it has to check if the previous letter is a vowel or a consonant, it means:
if the previous letter is a vowel, the plural form keeps the -i , example:
camicia > camicie (vowel+cia> cie)
ciliegia > ciliegie (vowel+gia> gie)
On the contrary, if the previous letter is a consonant the word loses the -i in the plural, example:
arancia > arance (cons.+cia > ce)
spiaggia > spiagge (cons.+gia> ge)
Do you know other words with this particular case of plural ?
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