L'intarsio è accanto alla porcellana.

The apostrophe shows elision: lo becomes l' before a word starting with a vowel.

• lo + intarsio → l'intarsio

Italian does this often to make pronunciation smoother. In this sentence, intarsio is a masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel, so lo becomes l'.

The noun intarsio is masculine singular, and masculine nouns sometimes take different forms of the depending on the sound that follows.

Normally:

• il is used before many masculine singular nouns
• lo is used before certain consonant sounds
• l' is used before vowels

Since intarsio begins with a vowel, the correct form is l'.

È means is.

It has a grave accent to distinguish it from e, which means and.

So:

• è = is
• e = and

This accent is very important in writing.

The expression is accanto a, which means next to / beside.

So the structure is:

• accanto a + la porcellana

In Italian, a + la contracts into alla.

That is why you get:

• accanto alla porcellana

This kind of contraction is very common:

• a + il = al
• a + lo = allo
• a + l' = all'
• a + la = alla
• a + i = ai
• a + gli = agli
• a + le = alle

In this meaning, you normally need a. The full expression is accanto a.

So you say:

• accanto alla porcellana
• accanto al tavolo
• accanto a me

Using accanto without a here would sound incomplete.

Alla is a combination of:

• a = to / at / next to, depending on the expression
• la = the

So:

• a + la = alla

Because porcellana is feminine singular, it takes la, and after accanto a that becomes alla.

Yes, porcellana is feminine singular.

A very common pattern in Italian is:

• nouns ending in -o are often masculine
• nouns ending in -a are often feminine

So here:

• intarsio → usually masculine
• porcellana → feminine

That is why the sentence has:

• l'intarsio
• alla porcellana

Italian often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already gives the person and number.

So instead of saying something like esso è or lui è, Italian normally just says:

• L'intarsio è...

This is very natural and standard.

Yes. Italian word order is fairly flexible, though some orders are more neutral than others.

The most neutral version here is:

• L'intarsio è accanto alla porcellana.

You could also say:

• Accanto alla porcellana c'è l'intarsio.
• La porcellana è accanto all'intarsio.

These versions shift the focus a little, but the basic idea stays similar.

Both can mean next to / near.

• accanto a often suggests right beside
• vicino a can mean near and may be slightly less exact

In many everyday contexts, they overlap:

• L'intarsio è accanto alla porcellana.
• L'intarsio è vicino alla porcellana.

The first often feels a bit more specifically beside.

Normally, no. In this sentence, porcellana refers to a specific thing, so Italian uses the article:

• alla porcellana

Leaving out the article would usually sound wrong here.

Italian uses articles more often than English does, so learners often need to get used to that.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

lin-TAR-zyo eh ak-KAN-to AL-la por-chel-LA-na

A few helpful notes:

• gli is not in this sentence, so no special issue there
• è is pronounced like eh
• cc in accanto is pronounced like a strong k sound
• ci in porcellana does not sound like English ch here, because the c is before e, so it sounds like ch in many standard pronunciations: por-chel-LA-na

If you want to sound natural, make sure the stress is on:

• -tar- in intarsio
• -can- in accanto
• -la- in porcellana

Intarsio is a masculine singular noun. It usually refers to inlay or marquetry, depending on context.

So grammatically:

• singular: l'intarsio
• plural: gli intarsi

That plural pattern is useful to remember:

• intarsio → intarsi