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Learn Hardcore Italian: Il gatto è maschio. - The cat is male.

Hardcore Italian
/Playing padel with friends
/Il gatto è maschio.

Il gatto è maschio.

Il gatto è maschio.

The cat is male.

Breakdown of Il gatto è maschio.

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Questions & Answers about Il gatto è maschio.

What does il mean here?

Il is the masculine singular definite article, so it means the.

In Il gatto è maschio, it marks gatto as the cat.

Why is it il gatto and not lo gatto?

Italian uses different forms of the depending on the sound that follows.

Use il before most masculine singular nouns:

il gatto
il libro
il cane

Use lo before certain special sound combinations, such as:

lo studente
lo zaino
lo psicologo

Because gatto starts with a normal g sound, the correct article is il.

Is gatto already masculine? If so, why add maschio?

Yes, gatto is grammatically masculine. But grammatical gender and real-life sex are not always the same thing.

A learner may notice that gatto is masculine and wonder why maschio is needed. The reason is that maschio makes the animal’s sex explicit: male.

So:

gatto = grammatically masculine noun
maschio = male

This is similar to the difference between grammatical gender and biological sex.

Does gatto mean only a male cat?

Not always.

Gatto can mean:

a male cat, depending on context
or sometimes cat more generally

If you want to clearly say female cat, the usual word is gatta.

So:

gatto = male cat / cat
gatta = female cat

That is why Il gatto è maschio can be useful: it removes any doubt.

What is è exactly?

È is the third-person singular form of essere, which means to be.

So:

io sono = I am
tu sei = you are
lui/lei è = he/she is

In this sentence, è means is.

Why does è have an accent?

The accent is important because it distinguishes è from e.

è = is
e = and

So:

Il gatto è maschio = The cat is male.
il gatto e il cane = the cat and the dog

This is a very common spelling point in Italian.

What kind of word is maschio here?

Here maschio means male.

After essere, it works as the word that describes the subject:

Il gatto è maschio.
Il cane è grande.

With animals, maschio and femmina are very commonly used to indicate sex:

Il gatto è maschio.
La tartaruga è femmina.

Why is there no article before maschio?

Italian often leaves out the article after essere when stating a basic category or characteristic.

So è maschio is a natural way to say is male.

You may also hear è un maschio, but that sounds a bit more like:

it is a male one
or a stronger classification

For a simple statement, è maschio is the most straightforward form.

How is gatto pronounced?

Gatto is pronounced roughly GAHT-toh.

A few useful points:

the g is a hard g sound, like in go
the tt is doubled, so it is held a little longer than a single t
the stress is on the first syllable: GAT-to

So the whole sentence is roughly:

eel GAT-to eh MAS-kyo

How is maschio pronounced?

Maschio is pronounced roughly MAS-kyo.

Important detail:

sch before i gives a hard sk sound

So it is MAS-kyo, not MASH-io.

Can I leave out il and just say Gatto è maschio?

In normal standard Italian, no. You usually need the article:

Il gatto è maschio.

Leaving it out sounds unnatural in an ordinary sentence.

Italian uses articles more often than English does, especially before singular count nouns.

What would the plural be?

The plural is:

I gatti sono maschi.

Changes:

il → i
gatto → gatti
è → sono
maschio → maschi

So:

Il gatto è maschio.
I gatti sono maschi.

Could I say Il gatto è maschile instead?

Usually no, not in this meaning.

maschio = male
maschile = masculine

Maschile is used more for things like grammatical gender or style:

un nome maschile
genere maschile

For an animal’s sex, maschio is the right word.

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