Learn Italian: Abbiamo comprato i monitor e i mouse per l'ufficio. - We bought the monitors and the mice for the office.

Abbiamo comprato i monitor e i mouse per l'ufficio.

We bought the monitors and the mice for the office.

Breakdown of Abbiamo comprato i monitor e i mouse per l'ufficio.

Questions & Answers about Abbiamo comprato i monitor e i mouse per l'ufficio.

Why don't the words monitor and mouse get an -i or -s at the end for the plural?

In Italian, nouns that end in a consonant are usually foreign loanwords. These are invariable, meaning the noun itself doesn't change in the plural. Instead of adding an -s like in English, you just change the article from the singular (il) to the plural (i).

The English plural of "mouse" is "mice". Why doesn't Italian use that?

When Italian borrows words from other languages, it almost always uses the original singular form for both the singular and the plural. It ignores irregular plurals from the original language. So, one computer mouse is il mouse and two are i mouse.

Wait, mouse ends in a vowel letter (e). Does the invariable rule still apply?

Yes! Even though mouse ends in the letter 'e', phonetically it ends in a consonant sound, and it is an unadapted foreign loanword. Italian treats these borrowed words as invariable regardless of their final letter, so it doesn't change to mousi or mouses in the plural.

How do we know these English words are masculine and take the article i?