Ok, I'm here again to explain the rules to make plural of words terminating with
cia and
gia.
First of all, you must control where the stress is.
If the word has the stress on the last syllable, the plural is
always -cie or
-gie
Otherwise, you must look at the letter before
cia or
gia.
Is it a
vowel? The plural will be
-cie or
-gie
Is it a
consonant? The plural will be
-ce or
-geExamples
ma
ncia/man
ce (
tip i.e. you give the barman when you pay your drink)
la
ncia/lan
ce (
spear/
lance)
fa
ccia/fac
ce (
face)
fo
rgia/for
ge (
forge)
cam
icia/cami
cie (
shirt/
blouse)
s
ocia/so
cie (
female member of an association)
val
igia/vali
gie (
bag)
farmacia/farma
cie (the stressing is farmac
ía,
pharmacy)
regia/re
gie (the stressing is reg
ía,
movie direction)
Additional notes
Many times you can find some plural in addition to the original ruled ones:
provi
ncia/provin
ce (rule) or provin
cie (also used) (
province)
cili
egia/cilie
gie (rule) or cilie
ge (rarely used) (
cherry)
cam
icia/cami
cie (rule) or cami
ce (also used
1) (
shirt/
blouse)
val
igia/vali
gie (rule) or vali
ge (rarely used) (
bag)
There are some other terms with double plural, but follow the rule and you'll never get wrong!
(1) The plural camíce may be confused with the singular cámice (medical coat), because in written language you don't indicate the stress.
So, if you want to write in good italian, never use this form.
Tags for "Plural of '-cia' and '-gia' words"