L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

Because it comes from la incisione.

In Italian, the feminine singular definite article la becomes l' before a word starting with a vowel:

• la casa
• l'incisione
• l'acqua

This is called elision. In this sentence, incisione is a feminine singular noun, so la changes to l'.

It is feminine.

You can tell from the article:

• l'incisione = feminine singular
• if it were masculine, you would normally expect l' only with a masculine noun beginning with a vowel, but here the dictionary form is incisione, and it is feminine

Its full form with the article would be la incisione, which confirms the gender.

Because pigmento is a masculine singular noun that begins with a normal consonant sound, so it takes il.

Italian masculine singular definite articles work like this:

• il
  • most consonant sounds: il pigmento
• lo
  • words beginning with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, etc.
• l'
  • words beginning with a vowel

So:

• il pigmento
• but lo studente
• and l'amico

Because contiene is the third-person singular present tense of contenere.

The subject is l'incisione, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• io contengo = I contain
• tu contieni = you contain
• lui/lei contiene = he/she/it contains

So L'incisione contiene il pigmento literally matches The incision contains the pigment.

The infinitive is contenere, meaning to contain.

This verb is a compound of tenere, and some of its forms are a little irregular. That is why the present tense is:

• contengo
• contieni
• contiene
• contengono

So contiene is not random; it follows the pattern of this verb family.

No. The word order is very straightforward and similar to English:

• L'incisione = subject
• contiene = verb
• il pigmento = object

So it is a normal subject–verb–object sentence.

Italian can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but this sentence is in the most neutral order.

Because Italian uses definite articles more often than English does.

Here you have:

• l'incisione
• il pigmento

In English, depending on context, you might sometimes say Incision contains pigment, especially in technical writing, but Italian normally sounds more natural with the articles.

So even when English might omit the, Italian often keeps it.

Often yes, but you should still be a little careful.

Incisione can mean things like:

• an incision
• an engraved mark
• an engraving, depending on context

So it is a close cognate, but the exact translation depends on the situation. In your sentence, the intended meaning is already given, so the important grammar point is that it is a feminine noun.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

leen-chee-ZYO-neh kon-tee-EH-neh eel peeg-MEN-toh

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• ci in incisione sounds like chee
• -zione often sounds like tsyoh-neh / zyoh-neh depending on the word; here incisione is commonly pronounced with a zyo sound
• contiene has stress on -tie-
• pigmento has stress on -men-

In standard Italian, no.

Before a vowel, la normally must become l':

• l'incisione
• l'acqua
• l'isola

So la incisione would sound unnatural and is not the standard written form.

It is singular.

You can tell from the article il and from the noun ending -o, which is often masculine singular:

• il pigmento = the pigment
• i pigmenti = the pigments

So if you wanted the plural sentence, it would change accordingly.

Sometimes Italian can omit the article in certain contexts, but in a simple sentence like this, il pigmento is the most natural standard form.

Using pigmento without an article would sound more specialized or stylistically different, and it would not usually be the default choice for a learner.

So for normal usage, keep:

• L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

They are:

• incisione = noun
• pigmento = noun

In dictionaries, nouns are usually listed without the article, so you would look up:

• incisione
• pigmento

But when you learn them, it is often helpful to remember the gender too:

• l'incisione / un'incisione = feminine
• il pigmento / un pigmento = masculine