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- Topic: Italian >
- "Loro sono mogli."
59 Comments
Confusing that the plural of "wives" has a masculine ending :( How would you say "they are housewives" or "homemakers"? Grazie!
997
Singular feminine words ending in "e" form their plural replacing "e" with "i".
Other examples are foce-foci (estuary), croce-croci (cross), voce-voci (voice).
So would it be "i mogli" to say "the wives"? Likewise, would it be "i foci, i croci, i voci"?
- 997
i is the article in the plural form for nouns of the masculine gender (that is gender of the word, not what it refers to).
Since moglie, foce, croce, voce... are feminine, the article must be le.
Just wondering: Does this mean two women married to each other? Or just two married women in general? Or either one?
- 997
Italy still doesn't allow same sex marriages therefore the language hasn't evolved a way to address these cases, yet. However I'd say: sono sposate or (horrible horrible form): sono moglie e moglie.
To answer your question, sono mogli doesn't mean that they are married to each other.
Is this still the case in Italy? Even if Italy doesn't allow it plenty of other countries do. Presumably two internationally inclined Italians speaking Italian may need a way to articulate a same sex marriage? These little quirks always surprise me :)
EDIT: For those that are interested, same-sex marriage is an open debate in Italy, but it still remains the only country in the western world to not explicitly allow same sex partnerships. Change is a foot, but still this really surprised me!
- 997
Italy has recently introduced a partnership (Unione Civile, reserved to same-sex couples) that is sorta kinda similar to a marriage (which is still reserved to man-woman couples).
From what I've read, there are some differences (in brackets the rules for married couples):
- divorce can be granted three months after the request (vs 6 to 12 months)
- partners can keep their last name (vs the wife must take the husband's name)
- adoption of the partner's children is subjected to a court decision, ie not granted by the Unione Civile (vs almost automatic)
- no expectations of faithfulness (vs expectations of faithfulness)
Wow, thank you, that's really interesting! Didn't know that women had to take their husbands' surnames either. This is 2020, Italy!
This is what I was wondering, and the response has been deleted. Could someone please answer?
It has, simply, to do with the spirit in every language... difficulties came from the way that someone must think in languages that already use.
Does anyone else hear the male voice as saying "moglie" rather than "mogli"?
Yes, And this is especially confusing given the "i" ending. One expects "le moglie" to be "the wives" but it is "la moglie" and "le mogli". You would think they would be a little extra careful about the pronunciation.
- 125
Yes! I had mogli as I knew that was the plural, but his pronunciation was off and I changed it thinking I was somehow confused.
This phrase has come up quite a lot but I've yet to see an equivalent for husbands... Any idea why?
- 997
Yes, it is wrong.
'women' = donne, 'wives' = mogli.
Italian and English have different words for 'women' and 'wives', unlike Spanish.
I think it is vague on purpose. I'm sure we can assume as we please. I take it as being married to each other. Doesn't have to be about Italy.
June 2020. It has cases to chose. Are and 're. I answered They're wives, and it says I have a typo lol. It's absolutely correct in English
