noun stem + -i

A Common Plural Ending

Level 1

Recognize linked forms such as karta/karti and rota/roti.

How It Works

A common noun pattern replaces singular final -a with plural -i, especially in Romance vocabulary. It changes the ending rather than adding i after the complete singular. Learn the whole pair, including any established stem adjustment.

The fragments karti speċjali, roti ħomor and sistemi interessanti mean ‘special sheets’, ‘red wheels’ and ‘interesting systems’. Their singular nouns are karta, rota and sistema. Compare rota ħamra, ‘a red wheel’, with roti ħomor.

Final i alone does not prove that a word is plural: speċjali and interessanti also occur unchanged with singular nouns. Nor does every noun ending in a take this plural. Variable adjectives use their own plural paradigms.

Examples (3)

  1. karti speċjali

    special sheets

    Noun-phrase fragment with the plural of karta.

  2. roti ħomor

    red wheels

    Noun-phrase fragment with noun and adjective plural agreement.

  3. sistemi interessanti

    interesting systems

    Noun-phrase fragment with an invariant adjective.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

noun stem + -iLevel 1A Common Plural Ending

Learn This First

Develop karta/karti, rota/roti and sistema/sistemi as lexical pairs that replace final -a with -i. Compare variable ħamra/ħomor with invariant adjectives so final i is not mistaken for a universal plural marker.