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Some nouns of this type are abbreviations, and have kept the gender of the full word: cinema  stands for cinematografo  [m], auto  for automobile  [f], foto for fotogra fi a  [f], etc. Such cases apart, there is no rule for determining gender, which has to be learned by heart or checked in a dictionary. 

7 Some nouns end in -i . The vast majority are feminine, but there are some exceptions: 

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Two exceptions are l’alibi (alibi) and lo sci (ski), which are masculine. 

8 Foreign nouns, unless they refer to a female, are generally masculine: 

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9 Occasionally, the gender of a foreign noun is the same as it is for the corresponding Italian word: 

la new wave is feminine, because onda (wave) is feminine. 

la mail (e-mail message) is feminine, because posta (mail) is feminine. 

10 The following rules can help in determining the gender of nouns: 

GLYPH<127> All months of the year and days of the week are masculine, apart from domenica (Sunday), which is feminine. 

GLYPH<127> All names of towns and cities are feminine, apart from Il Cairo [m]. 

GLYPH<127> All names of languages are masculine. 

GLYPH<127> Names of countries are normally feminine when they end in -a and masculine when they end in any other letter: 

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