Italian collective names of animals.

Here's the transcript of my latest video.

You know how in English you have all those crazy collective nouns like a pride of lions, a congress of baboons and a murder of crows? In Italian, we have none of that, but we do have collective nouns.

Branco is one of those nouns that is used for, oh, say wolves. Un branco di lupi, but you could also say un branco di pipistrelli, of bats.

Branco is used for mammals and typically carnivores.

However, with dogs, when used in a cohesive way, say for hunting, you would say muta: una muta di cani.

Mandria is used for bovines: una mandria di mucche, una mandria di bufali, etc.

However, if they are ovines, like sheep, you would say gregge. Il gregge. Fun fact, gregge becomes le greggi. So in the plural, it becomes feminine. Go figure.

A school of fish is called banco: un banco di sardine, un banco di tonni.

Colonia is used for insects. Una colonia di formiche, una colonia termiti, but also for birds. Una colonia di pinguini, una colonia di pulcinelle di mare, puffins. So any uh birds that live together as a society.

Like in English, colonia is also used for bacteria: una Colonia batterica, una Colonia di batteri.

When birds fly, they're called stormo. So a flock.

And when insects fly, it's called sciame. A swarm.