Body Parts in Italian: Vocabulary and Irregular Plurals

Vocabulary for the human body is among the most useful basics in Italian, whether for describing an appearance or explaining pain at the doctor’s office. A handful of words, however, follow an irregular plural, described below, which often surprises learners.

The head and face

Italian	English
la testa	the head
i capelli	the hair
la fronte	the forehead
gli occhi	the eyes
il naso	the nose
la bocca	the mouth
le labbra	the lips
i denti	the teeth
le orecchie	the ears
la guancia	the cheek

The torso

Italian	English
il collo	the neck
la spalla	the shoulder
il petto	the chest
la schiena	the back
la pancia	the belly
il fianco	the hip

The arms and hands

Italian	English
il braccio	the arm
il gomito	the elbow
la mano	the hand
il dito	the finger
l’unghia	the nail

La mano remains feminine despite its -o ending, an exception to remember from the start: la mano destra (the right hand), and not il mano.

The legs and feet

Italian	English
la gamba	the leg
il ginocchio	the knee
la caviglia	the ankle
il piede	the foot
il tallone	the heel

Irregular plurals: when the masculine becomes feminine

Several nouns for body parts, masculine and ending in -o in the singular, take a feminine ending in -a in the plural. This phenomenon, called genere mobile, mainly affects body parts that come in pairs or sets.

Singular (masculine)	Plural (feminine)	Translation
il braccio	le braccia	the arm / the arms
il dito	le dita	the finger / the fingers
il ginocchio	le ginocchia	the knee / the knees
il labbro	le labbra	the lip / the lips
il ciglio	le ciglia	the eyelash / the eyelashes
l’osso	le ossa	the bone / the bones

This gender shift remains isolated to this small group of words; the rest of the body vocabulary follows the classic mechanism described in the plural in Italian. In spoken language, saying “i bracci” instead of “le braccia” is still understood, but it clearly sounds incorrect to a native speaker.

Saying something hurts

The construction mi fa male agrees with the number of the body part concerned.

Italian	Translation
Mi fa male la testa.	My head hurts.
Mi fanno male i piedi.	My feet hurt.
Ho mal di gola.	I have a sore throat.
Ho la febbre.	I have a fever.

The plural of the body part systematically requires fanno instead of fa, an agreement that many learners forget at first.

Idiomatic expressions with body parts

Everyday Italian is full of figurative expressions built around a body part.

Expression	Meaning	Example
Ficcare il naso	To stick one’s nose into other people’s business	Mia zia ficca sempre il naso negli affari degli altri.
Alzare il gomito	To drink too much alcohol	Non bisogna alzare troppo il gomito alle feste aziendali.
Costare un occhio della testa	To cost an arm and a leg	Quel vestito da sposa costa un occhio della testa.
In bocca al lupo	Good luck	In bocca al lupo per l’esame di domani!
Avere le mani in pasta	To have a finger in many pies	Il sindaco ha le mani in pasta in molti progetti della città.
Essere il braccio destro di qualcuno	To be someone’s right-hand man	Elena è il braccio destro del direttore da anni.

These expressions often rely on adjectives to know in Italian to describe a person literally before shifting to the figurative sense, like destro (right) in the last example.

The face in detail

Italian	English
il sopracciglio	the eyebrow
la palpebra	the eyelid
la pupilla	the pupil
la narice	the nostril
il mento	the chin
la mascella	the jaw
la lingua	the tongue
la gengiva	the gum

Internal organs

Italian	English
il cuore	the heart
i polmoni	the lungs
lo stomaco	the stomach
il fegato	the liver
i reni	the kidneys
l’intestino	the intestine
il cervello	the brain

Other useful landmarks

Italian	English
la pelle	the skin
il muscolo	the muscle
la vena	the vein
il polso	the wrist
l’anca	the hip (variant of fianco)
il polpaccio	the calf
la coscia	the thigh
il tallone d’Achille	the Achilles’ heel