Alcuni

Alcuni is an Italian determiner and pronoun used to indicate a non-specific subset of a plural noun, equivalent to "some" in English. It is the masculine plural form; the feminine plural is alcune. The singular forms are alcuno (masculine) and alcuna (feminine), which are used primarily in negative contexts or in certain fixed expressions. In ordinary affirmative usage, speakers typically employ the plural forms alcuni or alcune.

Usage and forms:

Alcuni accompanies masculine plural nouns and alcune accompanies feminine plural nouns. Examples: alcuni libri (some books), alcune persone (some people). It can also introduce a subset with a partitive sense, as in alcuni dei libri (some of the books) or alcune delle cose (some of the things). As a pronoun, alcuni can stand alone: Alcuni hanno partecipato. The singular alcuno and alcuna are typically reserved for negative contexts or specific phrases, e.g. non c'è alcuno (there is none).

Grammatical notes:

Alcuni agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. It is common in both spoken and written Italian and is often preferred over less precise expressions when the speaker intends an indeterminate but non-empty quantity. The word is part of a small family of indefinites that include alcuno, alcuna, and alcuna forma neutrale in various constructions.

Etymology and related terms:

Alcuni derives from Latin aliqui, a source shared with related Romance languages (for example, Spanish algunos, French quelques, Portuguese alguns). A near-neighborhood in meaning is the determiner qualche, though qualche is used differently (typically before singular nouns to mean "a few" in a non-count sense). See also indefinite determiners in Italian grammar.