| Singolare | Singular | ||
| Maschile | Femminile | Masculine | Feminine |
| il melo | la mela | the apple tree | the apple |
| il pesco | la pesca | the peach tree | the peach |
| l'ulivo | l'uliva | the olive tree | the olive |
| il pugno | la pugna | the blow (punch) | the battle |
| il manico | la manica | the handle | the sleeve |
| il suolo | la suola | the floor | the sole |
| Plurale | Plural | ||
| Maschile | Femminile | Masculine | Feminine |
| i meli | le mele | the apple tree | the apples |
| i peschi | le pesche | the peach tree | the peaches |
| gli ulivi | le ulive | the olive trees | the olives |
| i pugni | le pugne | the blows (punches) | the battles |
| i manichi | le maniche | the handles | the sleeves |
| i suoli | le suole | the floors | the soles |
SERIES F
| Singolare | Plurale | Singular | Plural |
| il centinalo | le centinala | the hundred | the hundreds, etc. |
| il dito | le dita | the finger | |
| la eco | gli echi | the echo | |
| il paio | le paia | the pair | |
| il riso | le risa | the smile (laugh) | |
| l'uovo | le uova | the egg |
The Singular and Plural in English
Translator's Note:—While the formation of the English plural does not present the complications of gender that appear in Italian, the phonetic adaptations required by the plural ending -s along with certain orthographical caprices and historical survivals of the language, result in a situation somewhat more complex than treated by Signora Montessori. In fact, her analysis of the Italian plural requires eight word-lists, while English requires at least fourteen, not including the question of foreign nouns. The special stress on the article is hardly necessary in English. An analogous treatment for English would be somewhat as follows:
All these groups of words in their order are reproduced in special booklets which the children may take home and read. In actual practise such books have proved both convenient and necessary. The children generally spend much time on them and delight in reading the words over and over in the order in which they themselves have discovered them in the card exercise. This recalls and fixes their own ideas, inducing a sort of inner maturation which is often followed by the spontaneous discovery of grammatical laws on the relations of nouns, or by a lively interest which throws the children into exclamations or laughter as they observe what great differences of meaning are sometimes caused by a very slight change in the word. At the same time these simple exercises, so fruitful in results, may be used for work at home and well meet the demands for something to do with which children are continually assailing their parents. For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order. With them the child can compose words, or later, sentences, at the same time becoming familiar with the alphabet arrangement of standard typewriters.