Finally, certain masculine nouns become feminine by replacing their final vowel with -essa (see the following table).

GENDERED NOUNS THAT GAIN AN -ESSA IN THE FEMININE

MASCULINE

FEMININE

ENGLISH

avvocato

avvocatessa

lawyer

campione

campionessa

champion

conte

contessa

count/countess

dottore

dottoressa

doctor

oste

ostessa

host/hostess

poeta

poetessa

poet

principe

principessa

prince/princess

profeta

profetessa

prophet

sacerdote

sacerdotessa

high priest/priestess

studente

studentessa

student