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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: 

<img src='content_image/680898.jpg'>

## Spelling 

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: 

<img src='content_image/680899.jpg'>

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: 

<img src='content_image/680900.jpg'>

