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Learn Hardcore Italian: L'incisione contiene il pigmento. - The incision contains the pigment.

Hardcore Italian
/Learning pottery at an evening workshop
/L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

Word

L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

Meaning

The incision contains the pigment.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Italian

Lesson

Learning pottery at an evening workshop

Breakdown of L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

the engraved line; incision

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Questions & Answers about L'incisione contiene il pigmento.

Why does L'incisione have an apostrophe?

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'.

Is incisione feminine or masculine?

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.

Why is it il pigmento and not lo pigmento?

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

Why is the verb contiene?

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.

What is the infinitive of contiene?

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.

Is the word order special here?

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.

Why are there definite articles in front of both nouns?

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.

Does incisione mean exactly the same thing as English incision?

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.

How do you pronounce L'incisione contiene il pigmento?

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-

Can I say La incisione contiene il pigmento instead of L'incisione contiene il pigmento?

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.

Is pigmento singular or plural?

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.

Could the sentence omit il and just say contiene pigmento?

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.

What are the dictionary forms of the nouns in this sentence?

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

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