Learn Italian: In questo testo ci sono due prologhi e tre monologhi. - In this text there are two prologues and three monologues.

This is the core rule for this lesson! When a masculine noun ends in -go, we often add an h in the plural to keep the hard 'g' sound. For words ending in -logo, the rule of thumb is: if it is an inanimate thing (like a prologo or monologo), the plural takes the h to become -loghi. If it is a person (like a psychologist, psicologo), the plural drops the hard sound and becomes -logi (psicologi).

How does the h change the pronunciation of prologhi and monologhi?

In Italian, the letter combination gi makes a soft sound, like the 'j' in 'jeans'. By inserting the h, the letters ghi make a hard 'g' sound, like the 'g' in 'geese' or 'gimmick'. This allows the plural words to maintain the same hard 'g' sound found in their singular forms.

Could I just say sono instead of ci sono?

No, because ci sono translates to 'there are', which establishes that these things exist inside the text. If you just said sono, it would mean 'they are', making the sentence 'In this text they are two prologues', which does not make sense here.

Why is it questo testo and not just ?