L'assicuratore risarcisce l'assicurato.

the insurer

Breakdown of L'assicuratore risarcisce l'assicurato.

• l'assicurato: the policyholder
• risarcire: to compensate for damage

Questions & Answers about L'assicuratore risarcisce l'assicurato.

Why is there an apostrophe in L'assicuratore and l'assicurato?

The apostrophe shows the definite article l', which means the.

Italian uses l' before a singular noun that begins with a vowel:

• l'amico = the friend
• l'idea = the idea
• l'assicuratore = the insurer
• l'assicurato = the insured person

At the start of the sentence it is written L' with a capital letter only because it comes first.

What is the difference between assicuratore and assicurato?

They come from the same family of words, but they mean different things:

• assicuratore = insurer, the person or company that provides insurance
• assicurato = insured person, the person who is covered by the policy

The ending -tore often refers to the person who does the action, while -ato is often connected to the person or thing affected by the action.

How do I know who is doing the action in this sentence?

In normal Italian word order, the noun before the verb is usually the subject, and the noun after the verb is the direct object.

So in:

L'assicuratore risarcisce l'assicurato.

• l'assicuratore = the subject, the one doing the action
• risarcisce = the verb
• l'assicurato = the object, the one receiving the action

If you reversed the two nouns, the meaning would change.