6 Unit 1 19 Note that, in Italian, the masculine form of a noun is also used when the gender is not important. A noun in the plural may therefore designate any one of three di ff erent sets of people: Care is needed in spelling some plurals. 20 Nouns ending in  -ca  or  -ga  always add  h  ( -che  or  -ghe ), in order to keep the hard sound of  c  and  g  in the plural. We saw the example of  il / la collega  in paragraph 15. Here are some more: 21 Nouns ending in  -co  and  -go  normally add  h  ( -chi  or  -ghi ) and keep the hard sound, but some nouns change the sound of  c  and  g  in the plural ( -ci  or -gi ). It is always best to check in a dictionary: Spelling gli amici gli insegnanti i colleghi either  a speci fi c set of male friends [as in ‘Your friends (Luigi and Giovanni) have arrived.’] or  a speci fi c mixed set of male and female friends [as in ‘Your friends (Luigi and Anna) have arrived.’] or  friends in general [whether male and female does not matter, as in ‘Everybody needs friends.’] either  a speci fi c set of male teachers or  a speci fi c mixed set of male and female teachers or  teachers in general [regardless of gender] either  a speci fi c set of male colleagues or  a speci fi c mixed set of male and female colleagues or  colleagues in general [regardless of gender] Singular l’amica  [f] la tasca  [f] la riga  [f] (female) friend pocket line, ruler Plural le amiche le tasche le righe (female) friends pockets lines, rulers Singular il bosco  [m] il gioco  [m] il parco  [m] il lago  [m] l’amico  [m] il medico  [m] il biologo  [m] wood game park lake (male) friend doctor biologist Plural i boschi i giochi i parchi i laghi gli amici i medici i biologi woods games parks lakes (male) friends doctors biologists