What does “figli” mean in Italian?
Esercizi di famiglia in italiano con il metodo natura
A1 Italian listening practice · Italian · Curated for beginners
In Italian, one son is “figlio” and one daughter is “figlia.” When you talk about more than one, the form you pick carries information: “figlie” means daughters only, while “figli” works for sons or for a mixed group of boys and girls together. So a couple with two boys and two girls has “quattro figli” — four children — even though only two of them are “figlie.” The masculine plural quietly stands in for the whole family.
The clip lays it out clearly: “Carlo e Teresa Rossi hanno 4 figli” (four children in all), yet when asked “Quante figlie hanno?” the answer is “2” — two daughters. Same family, two numbers, because “figli” counts everyone and “figlie” counts only the girls. The pattern follows regular Italian endings: figlio / figlia in the singular, figli / figlie in the plural, all from Latin “filius” (son, child). You’ll meet the same logic with “ragazzi” for a mixed group of young people and “bambini” for a mix of kids — the -i ending does double duty as both masculine and mixed.